


Power

by firedragonworks (firedragon32)



Series: Power and Responsibility: a Klance Spider-Man AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam (Voltron) Lives, Adam is a little shit, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, BAMF Keith (Voltron), Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Shiro (Voltron), Gen, Human Allura (Voltron), Human Coran (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, I would DIE for Leo, Inaccurate Medical Terms, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Lesbian Allura (Voltron), M/M, Mild Blood, Mild Swearing, Mutual Pining, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Other tags to be added, Pidge and Adam Friendship, Pidge | Katie Holt is Savage, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Sassy Pidge | Katie Holt, Spiderman Keith, Whump, because I said so, but we love him, domestic adashi in this house, inaccurate science, mild body horror, not based off of specific spiderman, shenanigans ensue, teenagers united to fight crime, they are happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:28:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27212719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firedragon32/pseuds/firedragonworks
Summary: Keith Kogane is struggling to make his way as a New York City teen, facing difficult classes, insane amounts of homework, and a massive crush on the cutest boy in school. As if high school wasn't hard enough on its own, he leads another life as the crime-fighting superhero Spider-Man, catching criminals and watching over his city. With the help of Allura Altea, Romelle, and his best friend Pidge, Keith is quickly becoming a guardian over the crime-ridden city. Despite the difficulties that come with leading a double life, Keith enjoys being Spider-Man! Swinging through the city, helping people, and having an excuse to talk to Lance McClain make the exhausting and difficult job worth it.But something moves in the shadows, a dark malice unseen by all. Preparing for the right moment to strike.And only Keith has the power to stop it.
Relationships: Allura & Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Minor Adam/Shiro, Minor Allura/Romelle
Series: Power and Responsibility: a Klance Spider-Man AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986706
Comments: 72
Kudos: 135





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have recently found this au and I am 100% invested lmao. Please note that there is a bit of mild body horror/panic attack-esque material in the italicized section of this chapter.
> 
> EDIT: for all you new readers, welcome! I've created a [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEJXuzcRLpH4fdZBzxY_eAVlw79ZlQeSp) to fit the mood and characters of this fic. If anyone has a song or artist suggestion that they think would fit, DM me at either my writing tumblr, @firedragonworks, or my personal one, @angstyfangirl32, and I'll check it out ;)
> 
> EDIT: As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, from both old readers and those just starting out! <3

_ The pain throbbed through his body, pulsing behind his eyes and through his tensed muscles. _

_ Why did it hurt so  _ much?

_ Stinging bile rose in his throat. He retched into the toilet, clammy hands clamped over the seat. When he was finished he slumped back against the cold tile floor, shuddering and gasping as the pain subsided for the moment. He was burning hot one moment, then freezing cold the next. Sweat dripped from his face like tears, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably. _

_ Why did it  _ hurt?

_ Another surge of hot pain had him grinding his teeth together, fists clenching against the cold tile as every breath became a battle. The agony seared through him, burning through veins and stabbing his lungs with hot knives. As the horrible pain slowly subsided once again, a soft, pitiful whimper escaped his lips. His body sagged against the wall in exhaustion; he had been up all night from the awful pain, and no sleep would be coming for him. _

_ His reflection looked like death. Sweaty hair hung past his face in a curtain of tangled inky strands. His face was white, dripping with sweat. Dark shadows smeared beneath his too-bright violet eyes. His shirt was soaked with sweat, clinging to his body and icy cold. _

_ He was shaking so hard he thought he might fall apart, moaning as hot pain shot through him again, accompanied by a sharp tingling that spread across his skin. It reminded him of what static on the radio sounded like. _

_ He curled on the ground, shuddering in pain and clutching at his damp hair, gasping for breath. His mind, stuttering from the fever and the pain, could only form two thoughts. _

_ Why does it hurt so much? _

_ … _

_ What’s happening to me? _

* * *

“Baddies on your left.”

“Yeah, I know!” Keith swung around the lamppost, landing a solid kick to the would-be car thief’s back. The short man went down with a sharp cry, and his companion, glancing back and widening his eyes, ran faster, leaving his friend behind.

“Oh,  _ he’s  _ noble,” Pidge muttered into Keith’s comms.

“They’re thieves, Green,” Keith replied, webbing up the other man and abruptly halting his escape. “‘Noble’ isn’t on their resumes.”

He slipped the handgun from the fallen man’s grip, easing it around the strands of web that thoroughly encased him and trapped him against the wall. With a flick of his wrist the gun flew to the wall, covered in a splatter of web.

“How many times am I going to tell you to pick up your toys?” he sighed in exasperation. “Guns are dangerous, you know.”

The man didn’t look amused. Keith shrugged, turning to the other guy, who was propped up on his elbows, rubbing his head with a disgruntled expression. It turned to anger when his eyes caught on the red-and-blue suit.

“I wasn’t doing nothing,” the man cried, rising to his knees and flinging an accusing finger toward Keith. “I was getting in my car!”

“Right,” Keith said, tilting his head. “You were breaking the window of your  _ own _ car, in the middle of the night, wearing black. And your friends were carrying guns to keep all those pigeons away.”

The man spluttered, face turning red. Keith was just warming up.

“Honestly, I get it! There’s this  _ really _ obnoxious Pidgeon in my ear that’s always giving me sass. Just never stops. You gotta wonder when I’ll actually get some  _ respect!” _

“Quiznack off,” Pidge grumbled. “Just because you need someone to haul your sorry ass out of tough situations-”

“Hush, Green, I’m interrogating the criminals.”

Pidge huffed indignantly, but fell silent.

“‘Respect?’” The man chuckled. “You’re just a pest. You can’t stop all the crime in this city, you know. You can never stamp out all of the rats.”

Keith quirked an eyebrow, even though the man couldn’t see it. “Don’t flatter yourself. Rats are actually kind of cute. You’d better find another metaphor.”

The man grinned. “Wasn’t a metaphor, Spidey.”

The hair on the back of Keith’s neck raised, and he was moving almost before he could even process the man’s words. The man that had been sneaking up on Keith was on the ground in a heartbeat, arm twisted behind him, knife clattering to the concrete in moments.

Keith gave a tired sigh. “Why does everyone try and sneak up on me? It never works.”

He webbed the dude’s hands to the lamppost, and dragged the man he had been talking to over as well.

“Cops incoming,” Pidge’s voice cut through the comms again. “Better hurry up.”

Keith stepped away from the scene, looking over the captured criminals. One webbed against the wall. Two more on the lamppost. Not a bad catch.

“Police are on their way,” Keith said, poking one man with the toe of his boot. “Explain your horrible excuse to  _ them.” _

He was swinging up and over the building before the police cars rounded the corner. Keith lightly jogged across the roof, exhaling the nerves and tension of the fight from his body. It was a cold night, but the chill didn’t penetrate his suit.

He had to admit, the suit was pretty cool. Science and technology wasn’t Keith’s strong point, but the suit was equipped with communications, temperature systems that regulated his body heat, night vision, and seven different kinds of web fluid and other odds and ends that Pidge had developed with the help of the technology and head scientists at Altea Enterprises; the few who knew who Spider-Man was.

His list of people who knew was very short, consisting of just those who had been present when the fateful spider bite occurred.

His best friend, Pidge Holt. Allura Altea, daughter of the late director of Altea Enterprises, one of the most prominent research companies. Allura’s advisor and assistant, Coran. Her head scientist, Romelle. Those four were the only ones who knew Keith’s secret, and he had to admit it was helpful to have someone able to help.

When he had just started out, back when only Pidge knew about the results of that spider bite, he had donned a red hoodie and goggles as his uniform. Pidge had hated it, adamant that he needed to, in her words, “kick ass in style.”

And so, with lots of dragging of feet from Keith and iron stubbornness from Pidge, they went to Allura, whom Pidge had been interning with for nearly a year. Pidge had insisted she was trustworthy, and Allura turned out to be that indeed. She hadn’t told a soul, but had instead helped Pidge develop web fluid and the suit he now wore. It was thanks to the girls that he could do what he did so well.

Keith was broken from his thoughts by Pidge groaning in his ear.

“Keeeeiiiiiiiith! Earth to Keith!”

“What?” Keith leaped to the next building, landing in a crouch.

“You zoned out. Were you thinking about Lance again?”   
Keith’s face burned. “Wh- _ no!” _ Just the mention of Lance’s name turned him from superhero to awkward teenager, much to Pidge’s constant delight.

The latter hummed. “Don’t believe that.”

Keith huffed. “I was  _ thinking _ that you need to stop using my name over the comms, Green! We made the codenames for a  _ reason!” _

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Pidge grumbled. “In case someone hacks them and figures out your true identity, blah blah blah. Nobody can hack my tech. You know that.”

He did know that; Pidge was the best computer genius he knew. “Still,” he said, swinging out over the busy streets, “better safe than sorry. The NYPD has hackers, you know.”

Pidge sighed. “They’re not as good as me; I can hack their communications  _ sleepwalking! _ Buuuuut because you don’t want your weird face plastered all over the newspapers, I’ll start calling you by your codename, I guess.” Despite her huffy, nonchalant tone, Keith knew she was serious. She was like him, hiding emotions behind sarcasm and thorny walls.

“I appreciate it, Green.”

“How do you express your appreciation to me, Red?”

Keith rolled his eyes, swinging around a smooth glass spire before shooting off toward Queens. “Do I really have to say this again?”

“Do you really want the fancy-dancy suit?”

“This is blackmail,” Keith grumbled.

“I’m waiting to hear it, Red Boy.”

Keith sighed before reciting the annoying lines. “You’re a spicy badass tech junkie queen,” he mumbled, before adding on his own words. “And a salty gremlin.”

Pidge huffed, but Keith knew she was smiling. “If you say so, buddy.”

He flipped in the air, landing neatly atop a rooftop. “Ok, I’m almost to Queens. No disturbances. You can probably sign off for now, get some sleep.”

Pidge cackled. “Like that’ll happen!”

Keith grinned and shook his head. “Well,  _ I’m _ going to sleep. And you have that calc test tomorrow. You should probably, I don’t know,  _ study?” _

“Yeah, I probably should, but I probably won’t. I’ll sign off though; my mom’ll get mad if I’ve been on my computer all night long.”

“Don’t make your mom mad, she’s scary!”

Pidge chuckled. “Where do you think I get it? Anyway, I’m outta here. Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep thinking about ocean blue eyes….”

Keith’s face heated again, but before he could protest there was an audible  _ click _ as Pidge disconnected. Always getting the last word in.

He sighed and swung toward home. It was only midnight; he would be home relatively early from tonight’s patrol. Usually he got home at one-thirty or two o’clock. Thankfully he didn’t have a test the next day, otherwise he would be panicking. Keith  _ did _ have Newspaper, though; they were two weeks into the school year, and tomorrow would be the first meeting.

That meant he would be in the same room as Lance McClain for one and a half hours. He couldn’t tell if he was excited or nervous.

Keith slid open his window and slipped inside his bedroom. He lowered the blinds, then pulled off his mask. It was always a weird sensation, coming from the night-vision to darkness, but he was used to it by now. He tapped the dark blue spider icon on his chest, and the tight suit loosened and fell away from his skin. Keith shucked it off, folding it neatly and placing it in the box of old comics he kept under his bed. Shiro would never look in there; Keith’s older brother hadn’t read comics for years.

Keith pulled on a soft shirt and pajama pants and fell onto the mattress with a sigh. After a long day of school and patrolling, it was terribly nice to relax.

He was asleep within the minute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!! I am a HUGE Spider-Man fan, so I am really excited for this fic! I don't know how quickly I'll be able to update, since I have two other fics that I am developing and updating at the same time as this one. That being said, I will not abandon this! I don't like unfinished stories!!
> 
> For all of you angst and whump cravers, this fic will start out relatively mildly for that sort of thing. If you're patient, you will quickly get your fair share of depressing content ;) just wait. For now, it is just a story about a bunch of teenagers fighting crime and hanging out and being teenagers :)
> 
> Be sure to drop a comment before you leave!! <3<3<3<3


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet Shiro, Lance, Allura, and Romelle, and Keith gets a sick new suit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all! It's been a while! Sorry about that, real life has been using me as a pinata for the last few weeks. I've been sick, taking care of the household, AND fighting writer's block, so I haven't been able to update any of my fics lately. Don't worry it's not just this one I've been struggling with :p
> 
> ANYWAY welcome back to my self-indulgent au!! Like I said last chapter, I recently found this au, and I love it more than life itself so this is my own interpretation of how these two worlds would collide :)
> 
> That being said, I have never been to New York in my life, and though I want to go there someday it hasn't happened yet. I will do my best to research, but if I make a mistake please correct me! That also goes for my attempts at foreign languages! I'm planning on using mainly Spanish phrases and sentences here and there, with a few snippets of Japanese. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or accidentally say something offensive, so if I make a mistake, native and fluent speakers, please help me out so I can fix it! I will be using mostly Google Translate (I know, not the best but it's what I've got), but if there is a website or program that translates more accurately please let me know so I can check it out!!
> 
> For those of you interested, the playlist I write this fic to is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEJXuzcRLpH4UQxrYAgPblcxwMu1cSHA5
> 
> I like getting into the "Spider-Man mood" while writing this, so perhaps some of you may wish to do so while reading. idk. I will be updating the playlist as I find more music that I can work to in this context :p
> 
> Anyway, without further ado, let's get to the chapter!!

Keith’s eyes shot open moments before his door burst open. Shiro poked his head in, wearing his police uniform.

“Are you going to school today?”

Keith blinked, mind muddled from sleep. “Uhh…”

Shiro’s eyebrows were steadily rising toward his hairline. “You do realize school starts in like, seven minutes?”

_ “What?” _ Keith leapt out of bed, but his legs were tangled in the sheets and he went down hard. He flailed around, trying to free himself, but he was hopelessly caught.  _ Like a fly in a web, _ Keith thought ruefully. Ironic.

Shiro wasn’t helping; he just stood there, shoulders shaking. Was he laughing?

_ “Takashiiiiiii,” _ Keith complained, “are you going to stand there and laugh or help me?”

Shiro stepped forward, extending a hand and helping Keith extricate himself from the tangled mass of blankets and sheets. He was  _ definitely _ laughing.

When Keith was finally freed he scrambled to his feet, tearing off his shirt and throwing himself at the closet. He grabbed the first outfit that his hand touched and yanked the clothes on, shoved his feet into his shoes, and stumbled into the hallway.

It was a few minutes of panicked scrambling, grabbing notebooks and folders and shoving them into his backpack, tripping over untied shoelaces, gulping down a slice of toast and a glass of milk, before Keith was running out the door and down the hallway to the stairs.

“Keith, hold up!” Shiro’s voice echoed down the hallway as he hurried to catch up. “I can give you a ride to school,” Keith’s older brother said, patting his shoulder. “It’s on the way to the station anyway.”

“It’s fine, Shiro,” Keith grumbled, pounding down the stairs as fast as he could go. Annoyingly, Shiro kept up with ease; one of the many problems that came with having a cop for a brother.

Despite Shiro’s calm, kind demeanor, he, like any other older sibling, had taken a strong liking to humiliating his little brother. There was  _ no quiznacking way _ Keith would let Shiro drive him. Not when Keith could swing and make it to school just in time-

Shiro clapped a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Come on, let me drive you. You’re already going to be late, and… and there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”

Uh oh.  _ That  _ was never a good thing to hear. All at once every single thing Keith had done since birth ran through his head, including the past year of technically illegal vigilante activity.

He considered making a break for it, but quickly decided against it. Even if he managed to evade his brother, he knew Shiro would only be waiting for him at home. It was best to get this over with.

“Fine,” Keith grumbled. He let Shiro drag him to his car, where he sat with his backpack on his lap, glowering out the window at the passing streets.

They drove in silence for a time, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Finally, Shiro spoke.

“Listen, Keith, there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”

Keith slowly turned to look at Shiro. He sat in the driver’s seat, charcoal eyes not leaving the crowded traffic for a second. Keith swallowed nervously. By Shiro’s tone… this was a serious subject.

Shiro continued. “I… wasn’t sure how to tell you this, but… well, you’re my little brother, and I wanted to know what you think before I… did anything…”

Keith frowned. “Shiro, what do you mean?” It was clear his older brother was nervous; he spoke haltingly, and Keith could see him worrying at his lower lip.

Shiro let out a sigh. “I’ve… been thinking… I’ve been dating Adam for a long time now, and I was thinking…”

“You want to get engaged?” Keith interjected bluntly.

Shiro froze, then chuckled softly. “...yeah. I’ve been thinking about it for a really long time, and it just feels…  _ right.” _ He smiled gently, gaze far away. It was his exclusive “Adam Face,” as Pidge had dubbed it behind Shiro’s back.

Keith wondered if he looked like that whenever he thought about… nevermind. Pidge and Shiro would both gleefully insist that he did, despite his protests.

“So… why are you telling me this?” It wasn’t as if Keith knew every single detail of Shiro and Adam’s relationship; in fact, there was much of it he would rather  _ not _ know. Why was Shiro confiding in him now?

“I… wanted to ask your permission,” Shiro said, gray eyes flicking to Keith’s purple. “I know you’ve known Adam for a while, but… for so long, it’s been just the two of us together.” Shiro paused, the silence spreading between the like a stain. All the forbidden subjects by unspoken agreement, the shared memories of gravestones wet by rain and tears… some things were best kept hidden. Shiro danced around the topic, continuing.

“Having someone else join our family… that’s a big change. And it’s one that shouldn’t just be up to Adam and I. And so I wanted to ask you before I asked him, to make sure you were okay with it.” He began to speak faster, his words tumbling over each other in their rush to leave his mouth. “If you aren’t okay with it, that’s fine, that’s okay, I can wait, or figure something out, or-”

“Shiro,” Keith cut through his rambling.  _ He must really be nervous, _ Keith thought. Shiro was always the epitome of calm, cool conduct. “It’s fine. I’ve known Adam for almost as long as you have, you know. If there was anyone I’d want you to marry… it’d be him.”

Shiro looked at him, eyes wide. When he spoke it was a soft murmur. “Really?”

“Really.” It was true; Adam had been in Keith’s life for nearly seven years, even though he and Shiro had only been dating for the past year and a half. At this point he was almost another older brother. And… and he made Shiro really happy. That much was apparent in the wide smile that spread across Shiro’s face as he focused back on driving. Even if Keith hadn’t known Adam as well as he did, he still would have given the same answer. Shiro deserved to be happy.

Shiro’s cruiser pulled up to the curb of the school. Keith checked his phone screen; he was late for homeroom, but Mr. Guevara usually didn’t take roll until the end of class. He was just chill that way.

“Thanks, Shiro,” Keith said, climbing out of the cruiser and going to make his way to the front steps.

The whir of a window rolling down sounded before Shiro called to him. “Keith!”

The boy turned, peering at Shiro through the window. The man smiled. “Thanks.”

Keith shrugged nonchalantly. “Sure.” He was about to turn back when Shiro called his name again. This time, when Keith looked at him, there was an evil twinkle in his eye.

“Say hi to Lance for me.”

Keith huffed and turned away. “I have to go to school, he grumbled. “See you later.”

Shiro’s booming laughter resounded around the empty courtyard as the jerk drove away.

* * *

**littlegreengremlin:** guess what

**Samurai42:** what

**_littlegreengremlin has sent a picture_ **

**littlegreengremlin:** i finished it

**littlegreengremlin:** your new and improved kickass suit

**littlegreengremlin:** dont tear the hood bcuz its rly hard to make

**Samurai42:** you better not be making the suit IN CLASS

**Samurai42:** you do realize what could happen if someone found you working on it

**littlegreengremlin:** chill out its just the hood nobody will be able to tell what it is

**littlegreengremlin:** trust me im being careful

**Samurai42:** i do trust you but please be careful

**Samurai42:** why does it have a hood anyway

**Samurai42:** the other suit was working just fine. why do i need another one

**littlegreengremlin:** because it looks cool

**littlegreengremlin:** didnt you know that suit was temporary

**Samurai42:** i thought the one i made was temporary

**littlegreengremlin:** we dont talk about that one

**littlegreengremlin:** ily but no. just. no

**littlegreengremlin:** but theyre both temporary

**littlegreengremlin:** i really wanted to make a cool suit, so the first one i made was just to hold you over until i could get the other one finished

**littlegreengremlin:** this one is my masterpiece keith

**littlegreengremlin:** i have reached my peak and will never surpass it again

**Samurai42:** that good huh

**Samurai42:** how long have you been working on this one

**littlegreengremlin:** since i finished the first one

**Samurai42:** that was almost eight months ago

**littlegreengremlin:** i know

**Samurai42:** i told you the one i have works fine. you did an amazing job making it

**littlegreengremlin:** ya but the one i just finished will work even better

**littlegreengremlin:** just wait till this afternoon at altea

**littlegreengremlin:** youll love it

**Samurai42:** cant

**Samurai42:** newspaper meeting

**littlegreengremlin:** oh ya i forgot about ur date

**Samurai42:** not a date

**Samurai42:** newspaper. meeting.

**littlegreengremlin:** if you say so

**Samurai42:** i do say so

**Samurai42:** tell allura i cant come until the meeting ends

**Samurai42:** ill probably be there at about 5

**littlegreengremlin:** k

**littlegreengremlin:** i still gotta add the finishing touches anyway

**littlegreengremlin:** ill do that during ur date

**Samurai42:** NOT A DATE

**littlegreengremlin:** :)

* * *

Hours after their text conversation, Keith sat in the light of the afternoon sun, chewing on the inside of his cheek. His sketch was slowly spreading across the paper, lines and textures and shading flowing from the tip of the charcoal.

Soft dark hair, smooth unblemished tan skin. A slightly upturned nose, a sharp chin. Sparkling eyes beneath elegant brows.

He had nearly completed the drawing, and was now adding the finishing touches. He could hopefully finish it before the meeting began.

Keith leaned over the drawing, brushing the charcoal across the page; he lightly rubbed his finger across the drawing, smearing the charcoal for more effective shading. The ends of his fingers were blackened from the charcoal; even his wrists and hands were smeared with black. He could have used a blender, a rolled-up piece of special paper, to blend and smear the charcoal, but Keith preferred using his fingers. He liked the feel of the paper beneath his skin, the way the charcoal spread beneath his touch like ink on a page. It was  _ so _ worth getting dirty fingers.

“What’cha working on?”

Keith jumped at the voice; he had been so focused that his heightened senses hadn’t alerted him of anyone approaching until they were standing in front of him, arms crossed with a playful smile.

Lance McClain, the very subject of Keith’s drawing, raised an eyebrow at him. He wore a dark blue shirt and his favorite army jacket. The playful grin hadn’t left his face, thought it was diminishing beneath Keith’s silent stare.

“Uh,” Keith discreetly shifted his folders so they sat atop most of the drawing. “Just a project for art.”

“Cool,” Lance said with another grin. “I wish I could draw like that.”

Keith’s stomach dropped. “Um. You… saw it?” Pidge and Shiro would never let him hear the end of this one.

“Just a glimpse,” Lance said airily, waving a hand. “Couldn’t see it well enough to tell what it was, but it looked awesome!”

Keith felt like he could breathe again.  _ Dodged a bullet. _

“Can I see it?” Lance asked, leaning on Keith’s desk and tilting his head to the side.

Keith shook his head minutely. “Not done yet,” he mumbled. It was the first excuse he could think of. He hoped he wouldn’t hurt Lance’s feelings with that… 

Lance chuckled. “I know how you feel; I  _ hate _ showing people my articles before I’ve finished them! Feels like you’re showing too much of yourself, ya know?”

Keith nodded. He  _ did _ know. His art--not just the sketches of his crush--were pieces of his soul, parts of himself that he could only show with paint and pencil. Showing his art was something he hesitated to do; there wasn’t only the surface level of judgement, on how good his art looks, on whether he drew hands and feet correctly… there was also the deeper level, how pieces of his very being had been bared on that canvas. Sharing art was something deep and intimate, something he couldn’t do with just anyone.

Although… he wouldn’t mind sharing it with Lance. Usually.

Lance settled into the desk beside Keith. “So, how’ve you been, man?”

Keith shrugged. “Same as usual.” Swinging around New York, fighting gangs, stopping robberies and being shot at. You know, typical teenage life. But of course he couldn’t tell Lance that.

“Come on, you gotta give me a better answer than that! You look like a superhero or something!”

Keith blinked. “Uh… what?” His hands were sweating. Had Lance guessed Keith’s secret? What should he do? What should he say?

Lance continued, oblivious to Keith’s nervous panic. “Yeah, man, last year you were like, a normal guy, ya know? And now it looks like you’ve been  _ seriously  _ working out!”

Keith tilted his head in surprise; he  _ had _ built up more muscle, as swinging through the city in of itself was a full-body workout, not to mention the fighting.

“How’d you get like that? I’m curious!” Lance grinned at him. “I mean, you look like you could  _ totally  _ kick me into next year!”

Keith thought quickly. “Training program for cops,” he blurted. “Shiro’s making me do it. Says I’m not ‘healthy enough,’” Keith finished with a shrug.

Lance’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah! I keep forgetting that Shiro’s your brother.” He shivered. “That must be so weird, living with an actual  _ hero.” _

“It’s not that weird, actually,” Keith found himself saying. “I mean, yeah, he’s a hero, he saves lives and all, but…” Keith thought back to him and Shiro’s conversation in the car. “At home, he’s not a cop. He’s just… my brother.”

Lance tilted his head thoughtfully. “That… makes sense.”

A loud clapping at the front of the room drew everyone’s attention. The newspaper team captain, a Senior girl named Nadia, clapped her hands together again.

“All right, now that everyone is here, we’ll start!” She was a perky girl with dark skin and black hair pulled into a ponytail. “I’m pretty psyched for this year’s team! We’ve got some of our best writers and photographers this year, and I know we will do fantastic things together!”

Lance leaned closer to Keith, speaking in a whisper as Nadia continued her welcome speech; the same one as last year. And the year before that.

“Do you reckon she knows she’s giving us the exact same speech?”

Keith shrugged. “She’s pretty busy. I wouldn’t be surprised if she just forgot… three years in a row.” He trailed off.

Lance chuckled softly, shaking his head, though his deep blue eyes remained fixed on Nadia so she wouldn’t think he wasn’t listening.

Keith and Lance hadn’t always been on good terms with each other. Their Freshman year, they had both been photographers for the newspaper team. They had had fierce competitions to see who could take the most pictures that looked the best. Keith hadn’t been able to stand Lance that year; they hadn’t been able to stand  _ each other. _ Lance was always pushing for their “rivalry,” teasing and egging Keith on, while the latter couldn’t back down from a challenge. Needless to say, it was a mess.

The next year, Keith had gone back to school dreading another year of pointless competitions. But over the summer, Lance had realized that his true passion lay in writing. He became the newspaper’s best writer, always producing articles in a variety of subjects that appealed to everyone.

Their so-called “rivalry” was over, replaced by an amiable, if awkward, friendship. They still bickered sometimes, all good-natured, but they were no longer rivals.

Keith didn’t really know  _ what _ they were. He’d liked Lance for a long time, but he had no idea how Lance felt about him, and for all Keith knew they were just acquaintances.

He was broken from this train of thought by Nadia clapping her hands again. “All right, let’s start the year with a bang! I’ll see you all at tomorrow’s meeting!”

The classroom filled with the sounds of students packing up. Keith slipped the drawing from earlier into a folder, shoving everything into his backpack. He checked his phone; it was nearly five o’clock.

_ Quiznack. _ He was going to be late, and Pidge was going to have his head.

Speaking of the devil, the screen lit up with a message.

**littlegreengremlin:** get ur lovesick ass over here we’ve got work to do

Keith sighed, typing out a quick reply.

**Samurai42:** on my way. meeting just got out

He slipped his phone into his pocket, rising to his feet and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Keith made for the door, but a tap on his wrist halted him.

Lance grinned, eyes crinkling up at the corners. “See you tomorrow.”

Keith’s cheeks felt hot, and he stammered out a goodbye.

As he walked down the hallway, Keith cursed himself.  _ Why is it that I can jump off buildings and get shot at, but I turn into a nervous wreck when Lance talks to me? _

With a sigh, he left for Altea Enterprises.

* * *

Keith held up the new suit. He had thought the  _ first _ one Pidge made was cool, but this one blew it out of the park. It was mostly black and red, with a red hood. There were dark blue highlights, and when Keith had asked about them Pidge had given him an evil look that told him all he needed to know. She really was an evil little gremlin.

“This is really cool, Pidge!” He ran his fingers over the fabric, smooth and supple.

The girl beamed, twirling around on her chair like a three-year-old. “You should see all the upgrades I’ve made,” she exclaimed, eyes shining. “You’re going to be so  _ cool!” _

Keith frowned at her. “Wasn’t I cool already?”

“Nope!” Pidge said, popping the ‘p’.

Keith glared at her, but there was no heat behind it.

Romelle chuckled. “Go on, now, try it out!” She was standing at her workplace, wearing a silver Altea lab coat. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into two braids that hung down to her waist. Beside her, Allura stood at her own workplace, tinkering with a quintessence-powered prosthetic arm. The heiress of Altea Enterprises had long hair pulled back into a silver ponytail. Keith didn’t know what her natural hair color was; she had dyed it gleaming silver for as long as he had known her.

“Yes, Keith, try it on,” Allura urged, glancing at him with a smile. “We need to make sure it fits!”

Keith couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. He stepped into another room to change.

When he came out, the girls beamed at him. Pidge wolf-whistled; Keith chose to ignore that.

“It looks fantastic!” Romelle gushed, poking at the dark blue spider emblem on Keith’s chest. “How does it feel?”

“Pretty good, actually.” Keith hadn’t been sure about the hood at first, but now he actually really liked it. Pidge was right; it  _ did _ look cool. The material was stretchy and smooth, silky and pleasantly cool against his skin.

Pidge grinned wickedly, hazel eyes gleaming. “Let’s go kick some bad guy butt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first time attempting texting in a fic, so I hope I did ok. Did anyone catch the Spiderverse Easter egg in Keith’s text name?? :)
> 
> Artist!Keith is something we all like to see, so here it is :)))) My favorite material to use is charcoal, so I was lowkey self-projecting on that one :p
> 
> Keith’s older suit (the one from last chapter) looks similar to Andrew Garfield’s in The Amazing Spider-Man. There's a pretty cool website where I was able to design Keith's new Spidey suit. You can see what it looks like on my tumblr: https://angstyfangirl32.tumblr.com/post/634600101585797120/for-those-of-you-following-my-spider-man-klance
> 
> Also!!! If you have any requests to see a specific Spider-Man villain, scene, etc, please let me know in the comments! I do have a game plan for the rest of this fic, and some Spider-Man villains and scenes are already planned, but if there's one you especially want to see I'd be happy to put it in if it fits with the story!! Any reboot of Spider-Man is free game, I don’t have a preference one over the other :)
> 
> Thanks for reading lovelies!! I'll see you next time!! <3<3<3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is UP my dudes??? I'm back with another update!!!! (Huge thanks to bethacaciakay on Tumblr for giving me a push of much-needed motivation!!) I am WAY excited to give you this chapter!! The first two were mostly set-up, but we get into our first big plot points here! I think it's safe to say that the first 2 chapters were a sort of prologue, and the actual story begins now!!
> 
> Also holy heck this is the longest chapter so far!! I have a hard time with longer chapters, so I'm very proud of this :)
> 
> But before we get too far into the story, there's a few worldbuilding points I'd like to clarify on:
> 
> -Allura and Romelle are both about 19-20 years old. Keith, Lance and Hunk are all between 16-17. Pidge is 15-16, Shiro is 25-26, Adam is 26-27, and Coran is in his mid-late thirties. I'll clarify more ages as more major characters appear.  
> -"Quiznack" is a legitimate swear in this universe. It's a variation on the f-word, as we all know :) I am not comfortable with writing that word in particular, which is why I am replacing it. Just author preference, I guess.  
> -Team Voltron WILL be a team working together by the end, even though right now it's just a few. The other team members will join in as they discover Keith's secret identity ;)  
> -Most of the villains Keith faces will be a fusion between the classic Spider-Man villains we all know and love, and some of the villains Voltron has fought. I personally am going to have a lot of fun figuring out who is who :)))  
> -Again, I'm reminding everyone that I am not following any Spider-Man reboot in particular!! I will be taking villains and snippets of my favorite scenes from any Spider-Man. This may include Into the Spiderverse, the OG trilogy, Andrew Garfield's reboot, the MCU Spider-Man, the PS4 Spider-Man game, and the Spider-Man universe in general. You don't have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Spider-Man universe to read this! (Trust me on this, because I sure don't have one!!)
> 
> Now without further ado, on with the chapter!!

Pidge had really outdone herself with this one. Keith whooped as he swung over the bustling nighttime streets, flipping neatly and swinging from the next building. The new web shooters were much more sensitive than the older ones; the reaction times were quick as lightning. Pidge had run him through the basics of the new gadgets, and while there were more than Keith could count, he remembered a few of them. The ones he was most excited about. First of all, the voice changer. It made his voice deeper and more mature, like an actual man instead of a teenager. Keith was just glad he didn't have to try and deepen his voice anymore; it strained his voice, making it rougher and raspier even when he spoke normally. The other upgrade that Keith liked the most was the improvements made to his mask.

In the last suit, the comms dug uncomfortably into his temple; they were the smallest that Allura and Pidge could make them, but they were still too large to fit nicely. The new comms were ones that Pidge had been laboring over for months. Keith couldn't even feel the lump when he ran his gloved fingers over the side of his mask. Not only were the comms smaller and more compact, they had far more features than the previous. They could tap into police communications, to help pinpoint crimes and also communicate with officers if needed. Pidge had even added more features to connect to other devices, so that Allura, Romelle and Coran could contact Keith as well.

"You know, Green, you could like, change the world with your tech! This is amazing!" Keith couldn't help but gush as he perched atop a crane, abandoned for the night.

"I'm already changing the world, aren't I?" Pidge's reply was equal parts smug and awed. It was clear she was just as amazed by the suit's performance as Keith was.

"You're giving me tech. I don't think that's changing the world."

"Keith, m'boy," interjected a familiar voice, "how many crimes have you stopped? How many awful things have you prevented from happening? It seems to me that you are  _ both _ changing the world, son."

Normally Keith hated it when people called him "son," but for Coran he made an exception. He'd never admit it, but he had a soft spot for the flamboyant, orange-haired scientist.

"Oh sure," Pidge grumbled, " _ he _ doesn't have to use the codenames! I call bullsh-"

"No swearing over the comms," Allura said sternly. "Remember, we're professionals. We have to act like it."

Pidge grumbled a few choice profanities under her breath across the private line, and Keith chuckled.

He scanned the horizon, the tall dark buildings reaching toward the sky like fingers. In the daytime, New York City was a myriad of soft oranges and golds, stretching on and on as far as Keith could see. But at night, it was a whole different place. Even when the silver moon was hidden by clouds, the city was alight. Streetlamps, stoplights, headlights from taxis and buses, lights from windows, lights from signs, entire skyscrapers lit up in a blur of color…New York City at night was something Keith never grew tired of. He had the best view in the house, and he could sit and gaze over the city all night long. But he had a job to do.

A faint crackle sounded in his ear, followed by a monotone male voice. The police dispatcher.

“All units, we’ve got a report of a DWI; a black sedan heading south on Bowery. Multiple pedestrians have been injured. Excessive speeds and maneuvering; there are already three units in pursuit, but they need backup.”

Keith was moving before the dispatcher finished the report, pushing off the crane arm and swinging toward Bowery.

“I admit that hacking into the police communications can be beneficial,” Allura murmured thoughtfully over the comms, “but I still do not think it is legal.”

“That’s because it isn’t!” Coran said cheerfully. “If we were caught, we could all go to prison for up to a decade!” He sounded entirely too happy about the idea.

“They’d have to catch me first,” Pidge said. “Which they won’t.”

Romelle’s light chuckle swept through the comms. “If push came to shove, Green and I would make an  _ excellent _ team of fugitives!”

“You know it!” Pidge sounded immensely pleased.

Keith vaulted over an apartment building, swinging out onto Bowery. “Guys, can we  _ please  _ focus? I’m trying to work here.”

“Sorry,” Romelle said, but she didn’t sound particularly sorry. Keith held back a sigh. It wasn’t that he didn’t  _ like _ having Coran, Romelle, and Allura chime in when they needed, but they had a tendency to goof off, especially Romelle. It was true that they didn’t talk all the time, as most nights they were absorbed with their various projects and so could only pop in to put in a few words here and there, but it was hard to focus on being Spider-Man with all the chatter in his ear. He was grateful when Pidge switched to their private line.

“You’re coming up on the vehicle,” she said, suddenly all business. “It’s moving pretty quickly, but it shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“Right,” Keith nodded, already plunging into a sharp nosedive. He smoothly swung out of it, neatly flipping in the sky before swinging on. The wind whipped around his hood, but the mask protected his ears from the sound as his momentum sent him swinging far faster than the cars below were driving.

“Your biggest issue is keeping it away from civilians,” Allura said, her clear voice ringing over the comms. “Prevent more people from getting hurt.”

Keith grunted out an affirmative; he was fully in the zone now, rapidly coming up on the black car. There were three police vehicles in pursuit, but they were having a difficult time weaving around the people sent scattering by the black car’s high-speed driving. It was swerving all over the road, clipping other vehicles and sending people sprinting out of the way.

Keith planted his feet on the side of a building and pushed off with all his strength. He shot forward in an arrow of black and red, landing with a heavy thud on the roof of the black car. The man inside was staring straight ahead, sitting as rigid as a board in the seat.

It was strange, but Keith didn’t have time to think about it; the car was shooting toward a heavily crowded sidewalk, and though the people were beginning to scramble out of the way, they wouldn’t be quick enough.

He leaned over the side of the car, letting his hands and feet stick to the metal surface as the asphalt rushed past in a dizzying blur. With a soft grunt, Keith ripped the door off its hinges and caught hold of the man with his webs. He didn’t react, eyes staring straight ahead as he tossed him to the side, catching him in a net of web.

The car was slowing now that nobody was pressing the pedal, but it wouldn’t slow in time. Keith perched on the side of the car, panic coursing through him.

“Keith!” Allura snapped, breaking him from his trance. “You must stop the vehicle before it reaches the sidewalk!”

Keith nodded shakily. “Y-yeah, I know! I don’t know how!”

“Step in front of it and stop it!” Pidge cried.

_ “What? _ Are you  _ insane?” _ Keith couldn’t stop his voice from rising a few octaves with the last word. He had been Spider-Man for nearly six months now, but he’s  _ never _ done anything like that before! What if he was crushed? The car was easily moving fast enough to kill a person. What if-

“Keith, get your quiznacking shit together and listen to me! You can lift  _ at least  _ a full ton! You have to stop that thing, because I can tell you that  _ none _ of those people can do what you can!” Pidge’s voice was firm as steel, her legendary stubbornness rising to the surface.

Keith knew he had to try. He scrambled down from the roof to the windshield, pressing his feet flush against the smooth glass. With a grunt he pushed off, landing on the asphalt in a roll. Using the momentum from the roll, he spun, lowering himself into a firm stance with his hands outstretched.

Time slowed as the car loomed closer and closer, punctuated by the rapid beat of his pulse in his throat.

_ Thump-thump. _ Screams from far away as people scrambled to move out of the way, as they saw the figure in black and red face down the giant.

_ Thump-thump. _ The screech of tires as police cars jerked to a stop, the shouts of officers for him to get out of the way, don’t be stupid, stop trying to be a hero, you’ll only get killed.

_ Thump-thump. _ His face reflected in the approaching windshield, a mask of red and black and blue hiding his saucer-sized eyes, his pale face. It did nothing to stop the shaking of his outstretched hands.

And then the car was plowing into him with the force and fury of a ton and a half of screaming metal. Keith might have screamed along with it as the car bulldozed into him, pain lancing up his arms as he struggled to hold his ground. And he did, his feet digging trenches into the asphalt where he slid back with the force of the speeding behemoth of metal.

It took him a moment for his brain to catch up, to realize that the car had finally come to a stop. Then Pidge’s voice was in his ear, whooping with glee and triumph. Allura and Romelle let out twin sighs of relief, and Coran uttered a soft, “Well done.”

Keith stepped back from the car, legs wobbly with relief and shock. The entire front of the car was crumpled, with two distinct handprints on the front. It looked like something from a Superman movie.

Everything was dead silent, the bystanders and officers watching with mute shock. Then someone started cheering, and suddenly the street exploded with noise. People were clapping, whooping and whistling, and even some of the officers were joining in, much to Keith’s surprise. The others were reacting much in the way Keith expected: glowers sent in his direction, one officer speaking into his radio without taking his eyes off of Keith.

And, as he expected, they all began to move toward him, pushing through the crowd.

“Time to take my leave,” he muttered, leaping onto the car and swinging away. The cheering slowly faded behind him as the people began to disperse. As his adrenaline faded, Keith remembered the odd way in which the man had acted. He’d faced drunk people on the streets before; he knew what an intoxicated person acted like. Slurred speech, drooping head, loss of balance and coordination… a truly drunk person would have been swerving wildly, almost out of control. The way the man had been driving… it had been too smooth, too…  _ intentional. _ As if he were purposely trying to cause as much damage and chaos as possible.

Keith dropped beside the net of web. The man was still lying there, stiff as a board, eyes staring straight ahead without blinking. He didn’t so much as twitch when Keith dropped beside him, the teen’s weight making them both sway in the makeshift net.

Keith pressed gloved fingers to his neck, feeling out a pulse. After a moment, a steady beat pulsed against his fingers, and he drew back. He was alive… but why wasn’t he moving?

“Pidge, what’s his deal?” Now that he was closer, he could see disturbing details. His skin had taken on a purple tinge, and red marks slashed down his cheeks like tears of blood.

Pidge’s reply was tentative and wary. “I… I don’t know. I’ve just scanned him, and all his vitals are normal.”

“Is he having a seizure or something?” Keith had heard of people driving dangerously when they had sudden seizures and couldn’t control their bodies, but he’d never heard of it changing their skin color or giving them weird markings. He didn’t think that was what happened here, but he also couldn’t think of anything else it could have been.

“No,” Pidge said tensely, traces of fear in her voice. “Everything’s normal. There’s nothing wrong with him.”

Keith stretched out a finger, tentatively poking the man’s cheek. He didn’t react. Keith’s head was spinning in confusion. “But… you saw how he was driving, right? It was like… he  _ wanted  _ to drive like that. But how could he if he was like this the whole time?”

Suddenly, the man sat bolt upright, hands snapping around Keith’s wrists. Keith met his eyes and yelped. They were a solid, glowing yellow.

The man straightened, eyes focusing on Keith.  _ “Aaaaaaahhhhhhh,” _ he gasped.

Keith was frozen in shock and horror as the man’s grip on his wrists tightened, like solid iron. When he spoke, it was raspy and hissing, echoing weirdly as if three or four people were speaking together but not quite in sync.

_ “Try and keep up with us,” _ he rasped, a sharp grin forming on his face. He was holding Keith’s wrists so tightly it began to hurt, which shouldn’t even be  _ possible. “You cannot, but it will be so fun to watch you try.” _ He began to laugh, a sharp cackle that sounded like something from Keith’s nightmares. It cut off into a choke, and his eyes rolled up in his head and he was slumping forward, hands slipping from Keith’s wrists.

Keith automatically caught him and laid him back, but his mind was spinning with a blur of  _ what the hell _ and  _ what did he mean by that _ and  _ what the  _ hell?

Then the man’s eyes flew open with a gasp, but this time they were normal, brown irises in white sclera. His eyes widened with confusion, taking in Keith and the spiderweb he was reclining in.

“Wh-what happened?” His voice was soft, confused, frightened. Not raspy, or echoing. Normal. “S-Spider-Man?”

Keith stood, turning to some of the bystanders gathered below the web. “Can someone get this man medical attention?”

Someone nodded, and another was already on the phone with paramedics.

Keith left the scene with the man sitting on the web, a bewildered frown upon his face as he struggled to remember how he got to be sitting in a web several feet off the ground.

Keith was out of sight from the bystanders before he finally spoke. “Pidge, you… you saw that, right?”

“What. The.  _ Hell?” _ Pidge sounded just as unnerved and bewildered as Keith felt.

“I… I don’t know,” Keith said, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen  _ anything _ like that before.”

Pidge cursed. “I’d ask Coran or Allura, but they all left after you caught the car. They didn’t see any of that.”

“Describe it to them,” Keith decided, forcing the tremors from his voice. “Maybe they can help us figure out what’s going on.”

Keith pushed off from the building, struggling to banish the memory of glowing yellow eyes from his mind. He could think more about it later, but right now he still had a full night’s worth of patrols to focus on.

* * *

It was a few hours, a few gunshots and several webbed-up would-be burglars later when Keith was swinging by a line of shops, starting to head toward home. It was nearly time to be finishing patrol; Altea had closed up for the night, and Pidge was now being “in the chair” from her house in Queens. Keith had an English test that he still hadn’t studied for, so he was finishing up a little early so he could hopefully get some homework in before bed.

He was still shaken from the earlier events; first, leaping in front of a moving vehicle and stopping it with his  _ bare hands, _ and then… whatever had been up with that man. Keith probably should have stayed with him until the man had received medical attention, but he had been too shaken and far too freaked out to think properly. He consoled himself with the knowledge that the bystanders had been taking care of the situation. Hopefully the doctors could find whatever had been wrong with that man and gotten him help. But Pidge’s scans hadn’t found anything…

Nope. This was not something he should think about at eleven o’clock. He and Pidge would put their heads together tomorrow, when their minds were rested and refreshed.

Keith was broken from his thoughts by a tingle of electricity running down his spine. His head snapped to the side, where someone was walking down the sidewalk. As he watched, three men peeled from the shadows and trailed behind the other person.

“Go kick their asses,” Pidge said cheerfully.

“Language, Pidge,” Keith said, and the girl huffed in response.

Keith began to move toward the blooming mugging.

He drew close enough to hear what was happening as the men confronted the figure; while the men certainly  _ looked _ suspicious, it was possible-though unlikely-that they didn’t intend to harm. Shiro had drilled into his head the importance of evaluating a situation before acting, and though it had taken Keith some time to implement that with being Spider-Man, he had gotten infinitely better in time.

The figure was wearing a blue hoodie pulled over his head, and Keith could see the white trails of earbuds from his perch on the lamppost as the boy turned to face the men. As his face caught the light, Keith caught glimpses of tan skin, an upturned nose and a sharp chin.

Oh no.

“Let’s see what’s in the bag, eh, Blue?” One of the men grinned as he drew a gun and pointed it at his victim, who Keith now knew as no other than Lance McClain. His cronies followed suit with their own weapons, one with a short, jagged knife and another with a heavy bat.

Lance’s eyes darted between the three, and he visibly swallowed. “Uh, look, guys, we can talk about this, right?”

The man with the gun stepped closer, and the gun gleamed in the yellow lamplight. “Less talkin’, and more doin’. Get to it, Blue.”

Keith didn’t give anyone a chance to react. He arrowed forward, webbing the gun from the man’s hand and sticking it to the lamppost where it was out of reach. He used his momentum to swing around, kicking the man in the jaw and sending him sprawling. The other two rushed forward, and Keith dodged beneath the swinging bat before punching his assailant squarely in the face. His spine tingled, the hairs on the back of his neck rising, and Keith spun away, taking hold of the other man’s wrist and twisting it so the knife clattered from his grip. He kicked the man in the chest, sending him to the ground, and quickly webbed all three before they could rise.

Keith turned toward Lance. The other boy’s blue eyes were wide as saucers, his hood pulled back to reveal tousled brown locks. His jaw was working, but no sound was coming out. Keith had never seen Lance McClain speechless before, but now the other boy was staring at him in shocked silence.

“Are you all right?” Keith had never been more grateful for the voice changer, because there was no  _ way _ Lance wouldn’t have recognized his voice.

Lance swallowed, then nodded. “Y-yeah, I’m okay.” His hands twisted in the front pocket of his hoodie. When he spoke next it was more confident, more like the Lance Keith knew. “Cool suit.”

Keith blinked. “Thanks.” He picked up Lance’s bag, which the other boy must have dropped while Keith was fighting his would-be muggers, and offered it to him. Lance’s fingers brushed against his as the other boy accepted it, and Keith was grateful for the mask that covered his flushed cheeks. Despite the butterflies rising in his stomach, Keith’s voice was steady when he spoke.

“What were you doing out here anyway, walking in the dark?”

Lance shrugged. His voice had regained most of its usual confidence, but was still tremulous. “Walking home from work. My boss needed help with clean-up.”

Keith nodded and hummed in response. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. Will you be all right for the rest of the way home?”

Lance hesitated, eyes flicking from Keith’s face to the ground. “Actually… could you maybe walk with me?”

Keith blinked in surprise; he hadn’t expected that. Lance, sensing his surprise, began to frantically backpedal.

“Shit, sorry, sorry, I know you’re really busy, it was stupid, I shouldn’t have asked-”

“Whoah, hey!” Keith held up his hands, breaking through Lance’s rambling. “No, it’s fine! I just normally don’t get asked that. I’d be happy to walk with you if it makes you feel safer.”

Lance stared at him. “Really? I mean, don’t you have like, robberies to stop or something?”

Keith shrugged. “I was about to sign off for the night anyway when I saw what was happening over here. It’s no big deal.”

Lance let out a heavy breath. “Oh, good, because I  _ really _ don’t want to have to walk home alone after all that, and it’s not like I’m scared of the dark but I mean there could be more of those guys, and-”

“Seriously. It’s okay.” Keith placed his hands on his hips, but a crackle in his comms burst across his ear.

“Red, stop pining. Don’t you have stuff to do?” Pidge’s voice was smug.

Keith sighed, raising a finger to his temple. Technically he didn’t have to do that, but he didn’t want Lance to think he was talking to him.

“Green, I’m signing off. You can be done for the night.”

“Yeah, yeah, go on your date with the damsel.”

Keith sighed, ignoring the curious look from Lance. “Green. Seriously?” Lance had almost been attacked, and Pidge was making jokes at his expense? Keith loved Pidge, he really did, but sometimes her timing was very off.

“...yeah, sorry, that just slipped out.” He could almost see Pidge’s wince. “I didn’t mean it. See you tomorrow.”

She signed off with a click, and Keith lowered his fingers. He knew Pidge hadn’t meant it, but he was glad she apologized. For a long time, she hadn’t been able to tell when her jokes were harmful or not, but she was getting better at catching herself when she accidentally said something mean. For all of her barbs and walls, Pidge wasn’t cruel.

“Who was that?” Lance asked, tilting his head.

Keith glanced up at him. “Hmm? Oh, them? That was my… sidekick, I’d guess you’d call it, but they would kill me if I told them that.” Keith knew it was unlikely anyone would figure out who he was, but even if someone did he didn’t want them to find Pidge through him, so he thought it best to be vague on the pronouns.

Lance blinked. “I… didn’t know you had a sidekick.”

“I call them my ‘guy in the chair,’” Keith said. “They’re not really my  _ sidekick, _ per se, but they stay in contact with me while I’m out on patrol. Keeps me company, and sometimes it’s good to have another set of eyes and ears.”

Lance nodded with a hum. “That sounds really cool,” he murmured. His eyes brightened. “You’re like a superhero! You’ve got a tech guy and everything! Did they design your suit?”

“They did, actually,” Keith said. “They’re good at that sort of thing.” He paused, placed his hands on his hips. “It’s pretty late; I should probably get you home.”

Lance nodded. “All right.”

_ Lance must really be shaken, _ Keith thought as the other boy began to walk down the street. Keith fell into place beside him, matching his pace with Lance’s long, loping stride.

Of course, it was expected that someone be shaken after nearly being shot. Lance would probably be jumping at shadows for the next few days-anyone would be.

“So, what’s your name, Spider-Man?” Keith froze at Lance’s question, and the boy chuckled. “Sorry, I was just joking. I know you don’t tell anyone that.”

Keith resumed walking. “It’s fine, it just caught me off guard.” He paused, then said, “What’s  _ your _ name?”

“Lance,” the other boy said, casting a sidelong glance at him. “I, uh, never thanked you for, you know, saving my skin back there.”

Keith shrugged. “It’s kind of my job. You don’t have to thank me.”

“Well I am anyway.”

They fell into a slightly awkward silence. Now, normally Keith didn’t mind silence, but here was a golden opportunity to get to know Lance McClain, something he had never been able to do during their rivalry, and afterward, when he had only interacted with the boy at newspaper.

“So, where do you work?”

The question seemed to take Lance by surprise. His ocean blue eyes widened, but after a moment the stunned look melted, replaced by a tiny smile.

“You know that little restaurant on the corner of 1st and 4th? The Lion’s Den?”

Keith nodded. “Oh, that place? They have really good milkshakes.”

Lance started. “You’ve been there?” He paused, then chuckled. “I forgot about the whole ‘suit-wearing’ thing for a second. Yeah, the milkshakes are my favorite!”

They walked on, Lance chattering about his coworkers, his boss, and some of the…  _ odder _ customers they’d had before.

After a few minutes, Lance stuttered to a stop. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve been talking for forever. You’re probably annoyed with it…”

“I’m not,” Keith said, and he meant it. “You don’t have to apologize.”

A soft smile spread across Lance’s face. “Thanks,” he murmured.

Keith found it was surprisingly easy to talk to Lance as Spider-Man. Perhaps it was the fact that Lance didn’t know who he was, but Keith knew who  _ Lance _ was. Perhaps it was the way that Lance’s eyes had darted around nervously at first, glancing at the shadows, but after several blocks he visibly relaxed into his signature saunter, hands in pockets and a long, loping stride.

Before Keith knew it, Lance had stopped in front of a house. It was narrow, with several stories balanced on top of each other. A yellow light shone from the bottom floor, from what Keith assumed was the kitchen.

“That’s probably my  _ mamá, _ ” Lance said with a wince. “She always stays up until I get home…”

“Well, you’d better get inside, then,” Keith said. Lance nodded, swinging his bag onto his shoulder and stepping onto the small square of lawn in front of the house. He was nearly at the top of the porch when he turned back.

“Hey, Spider-Man!”

At his call, Keith turned and looked at him. Lance smiled.

“Thanks, man. For everything.”

Keith was smiling, even though Lance couldn’t see it. “Anytime.”

Lance disappeared into his house, firmly shutting the front door with a click.

Keith stood in the lamplight for a long moment before finally stepping away, swinging up onto the lamppost and on to the buildings.

It had been a very long day, and Keith didn’t think he would have enough energy to study before falling asleep.

He was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens :) Anyone who can guess who our first villain appearance was wins the prize :)
> 
> rip Keith's test tomorrow :) that's why you don't stay out late fighting criminals, kids
> 
> Thank you so much for coming along on the ride! This fic is purely self-indulgent but I'm glad you all seem to enjoy it as much as I do ;) Buckle up, the coming chapters are gonna be a wild ride!
> 
> Come chat with me on Tumblr or Instagram! I'm very friendly and I would love to get to know my readers a little better!!  
> My Tumblr: angstyfangirl32  
> My Instagram: fire.dragon.32  
> I try and keep all my profile pictures the same to make it easier to find me ;)
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoy this story! They really do motivate me to keep writing, and I love to see what you all think ;)
> 
> Stay safe, everyone!! xx


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Squad Shenanigans
> 
> that's it that's the chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've found that I either knock out several chapters on as many consecutive days, or I'm MIA for weeks. There's no in-between is there
> 
> Anyway I was hit with a blaze of inspiration and decided to write y'alls a new chapter. This one, I really wanted to focus on Keith and his friends hanging out and chilling together. These guys are Squad Goals, ok ok

“Dude, are you okay?”

Keith raised his head, blinking blearily. Hunk stood above him, holding a lunch tray, a gentle grin on his face. The larger boy wore a yellow shirt, with his signature orange headband.

They stared at each other for a solid five seconds, Keith trying to blink the blurriness away from his eyes.

“Dude. You look like,  _ really _ tired. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you stressed from school? Because boy do I feel you on that, this last quiz almost made me puke!” Hunk looked like he was going to start rambling any second.

“I’m fine,” Keith said, not unkindly. “Just tired.”

“He stayed up and helped me with my English homework,” Pidge said without taking her eyes off her textbook. She sat across the table, her tray of food pushed aside as her honey eyes scanned the pages.

“Yeah,” Keith said. “I had to study for an English test, and she needed help with her homework, so we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone.” It was frightening, how good they both got at lying, but it was something they’d perfected over the months.

“You sure you’re okay, though?” Hunk sank down next to Pidge, setting his tray on the table with a soft clatter. “I know Pidge is used to staying up all the time, so she’s immune to sleep deprivation.”

Pidge smirked, still not looking up from her textbook. “You know it.”

“I’m fine, really,” Keith said. And he was-except for the fact that he had literally been nearly run over last night, and he had been perpetually sleep-deprived his entire life… not to mention he was up half the night with nightmares of hissing voices and glowing yellow eyes.

Hunk nodded, diving into his meal. “Glad to hear it, buddy.”

Keith poked at his own food, a tasteless mix of sludge that was supposed to be mashed potatoes, musing at how much his life had changed.

Keith thought he would be destined to be the “lone wolf,” the foreign orphan kid with far too much rage to fit in such a tiny body. He didn’t have any friends, nobody to talk to except Shiro, with both brothers still grieving the loss of their mother and Shiro struggling to find his place as both a cop and as Keith’s legal guardian. It hadn’t been the best time; Keith was angry, and defensive, and he lashed out-at everyone. He got into fights. He won, then lost, then lost some more, but not without getting in a few solid hits. Fighting was the only outlet he had, except for art. But in the days and weeks and months following his foster mother’s death, Keith stopped drawing. He broke his pencils, threw all his paints together in a brownish-gray sludge, and tore up all his sketchbooks.

She’d left him, just like his father. Just like his mother. And so all he had was fighting, and anger, and being so  _ lost _ he didn’t know what to do with himself.

He didn’t have friends, but he had Shiro. Shiro stayed with him, through the fits of rage, the detentions and meetings with the principal, the late nights rubbing his back as he sobbed and shook and  _ screamed _ because everyone left. Everyone always left.

Looking back now, Keith didn’t think they would have made it without Adam. He and Shiro had been friends for years, and he tried his best to support them both while the brothers struggled to find some semblance of normalcy. Honestly, Keith should have suspected that there were…  _ stronger _ feelings at play. But Adam was the only person who knew them, who bothered to reach out to Keith. It was Adam who purchased more pencils for Keith, who brought him paints and brushes and quietly encouraged him to take up his passion again. For a long time it was just those three, each trying to stay afloat in their own seas of turmoil.

Then Shiro met Matthew Holt, and everything changed. Shiro didn’t have any friends either, save for Adam and those on the police force, but he never got to see them outside of work and they were all middle-aged, with wives or husbands and children; and though Adam did all he could, he still had his own life and boatload of problems and there was only so much he could do. But Matt Holt changed everything. The two clicked almost instantly, Matt bringing out Shiro’s mischievous side, one that Keith rarely saw, especially after losing Shiro’s mother, and Shiro being Matt’s sole impulse control. Matt introduced them to his father, Sam. Sam introduced them to his wife, Colleen. And they all introduced Keith to Pidge.

Shiro now said that he would forever regret doing that; there couldn’t have been a better person to be Keith’s best and only friend. Pidge’s solitary nature meant that she didn’t have many friends, either. It also meant that she respected Keith’s space, something that other kids never did. Unfortunately, Pidge was also mischievous by nature, with a brilliant mind like her brother and her parents. That, combined with Keith’s recklessness, was, as Shiro and Matt always said, “a monstrous combination.”

No matter what Shiro said, bemoaning them ever meeting whenever Pidge wired their fridge door to lock, Keith knew the man was glad Keith had found a friend. He was, too. Keith had known Pidge for years now, and he didn’t know what he would have done without her, especially after gaining his terrifying new abilities.

And now, it wasn’t just Pidge, either; a few years after Pidge and Keith became friends, when they were both in their last year of junior high, the girl joined the robotics club after much pushing from Keith and Matt. There, she met Hunk, who was probably the nicest person Keith had ever met in his life. Pidge and Hunk became fast friends, bonding over their shared love of technology, and Keith warily accepted Hunk. They hadn’t been  _ friends, _ per se, but amiable acquaintances. Hunk was so kind and accepting, and Keith couldn’t help but like the boy; however, he could not say the same for Hunk’s best friend.

Lance, with the blooming friendship of Hunk and Pidge, was also pulled into their little group, much as Keith was. Unfortunately, he did _not_ like Keith. At all. And the feeling had been mutual. Lance was just _so loud_ _all the time._ For Keith, who had never been comfortable with noise, or people in general, it drove him insane.

Going into their Freshman year, Lance insisted on their so-called “rivalry,” always teasing and sending sharp retorts. It wasn’t that Keith  _ tried _ to be mean-he had gotten better at controlling his temper, he really had, but there was something about Lance that just rubbed him in all the wrong ways. It was like he was a kid again, still reeling from loss and lashing out at everything around him.

Shiro had tried to help him, saying that perhaps Lance was just joking around. Keith didn’t think so; Lance  _ hated  _ him.

Then, Lance came with an apology in hand their Sophomore year, and suddenly Keith found himself in a group where he was friends with  _ all _ of them, not just most. Of course he’d had some amounts of wariness, but Lance had looked so guilty and apologetic, and perhaps some of Hunk’s kindness had rubbed off on Keith because he found that he didn’t like those emotions on Lance’s face.

Though the road to get there had been  _ very _ rough in some places, Keith liked to think that maybe… it wasn’t just him and Pidge anymore. Hunk, of course, was friends with everybody, but Keith liked to think that he and Lance were friends, too. Shiro always urged him to ask Lance, just to clear things up, but Keith never found the courage. He didn’t want Lance to reject him, and not just because he’d had a crush on him for forever. If Lance didn’t want to be his friend, then Hunk would stop hanging out with them and Pidge would still be their friend and Keith would be all alone again. He knew it was probably irrational thinking, but that didn’t stop him from thinking it. Not to mention that he couldn’t even  _ talk _ to Lance without completely losing his nerve.

But he liked to think that he had  _ friends _ now. And though most of them didn’t know his secret, the fact that he could come to school and sit at their lunch table and lose himself in the chatter of the three teens he trusted was better than anything he had ever experienced.

A tingle ran down Keith’s spine, and he looked up in time to see Pidge’s pencil tap his arm. Her copper eyebrows rose in amusement; she loved to mess with his enhanced senses.

“You good there, Keith? Kinda zoned out for a minute.”

Keith shook himself from his thoughts of the past. “Yeah, just thinking.” He glanced around at their table, at Pidge with her textbooks strewn about, almost completely ignoring her food, and at Hunk nibbling at his mashed potatoes while staring at his phone, thumbs moving across the screen.

“Where’s-”

“Lance is currently hiding in the library,” Hunk said. “People kept asking him questions and stuff about what happened last night, and so he’s trying to avoid everyone.”

Keith blinked in surprise; he hadn’t thought Lance to be one to avoid attention.

“Did you hear what happened?” Hunk asked. Keith mutely shook his head; he knew what happened, of course, but he hadn’t heard it from someone else. How embellished had the story become? Also, how had everyone found out? It wasn’t as if Lance had been mugged in the middle of Times Square.

“He almost got mugged on his way home from work,” Hunk said. “They pulled a gun on him and everything! He called me in the middle of the night and told me what happened, and  _ of course _ I freaked out, which probably only scared him more, but anyway, he didn’t want to tell everyone because he was still really freaked from what happened, but some dude had recorded the whole thing and posted it on like,  _ every _ social media platform that exists.”

Pidge winced, and Keith only stared in mute shock. Lance had had a  _ gun _ held up to his  _ face, _ and now everyone knew even though he hadn’t wanted them to, and were undoubtedly making him more paranoid and spooked, which Keith could understand. He’d felt the same way after Spider-Man’s debut, with the whole city buzzing about him and his fellow classmates chattering endlessly about their theories on who Spider-Man was, but he had the cover of anonymity. Nobody knew who Spider-Man was, but they knew who  _ Lance _ was. All of their classmates, all of the  _ world _ would all be up in Lance’s face, reminding him of an event that he would undoubtedly rather forget.

“Apparently this guy’s a  _ huge _ Spider-Man nerd, and so anytime the dude shows up at a crime scene, he’s there, too. I went over to Lance’s as soon as I heard, and he was freaking out so much I deleted all of his social media apps so he’d stop getting the notifications.” Hunk sighed, brows coming together. “I just wish everyone would leave him alone.”

Pidge shook her head angrily. “If I ever get my hands on that asshole who posted the video, I’ll-”

Keith cut off what was no doubt a string of unsettling threats and glanced at Hunk. “Is he gonna be okay? In the library by himself, I mean?” Keith knew better than anyone what silence could do to make one’s fears seem worse.

Hunk sighed again. “I’m trying to convince him to  _ at least _ come sit at our table, so he can eat something.” He frowned at his phone screen, typing out another text. After a few moments of quiet, punctuated by the sound of Hunk’s fingers tapping his screen, the other boy exhaled and placed his phone screen down on the table. “He’s on his way.  _ Man, _ he can be so  _ stubborn _ when he wants to be!”

Pidge chuckled. “Got that right.” She nudged Keith’s shin with her toes from under the table. “Almost as stubborn as you.”

She continued flipping through her textbook, occasionally taking a grudging bite of food at Hunk’s urging. Keith sat back, glancing at his phone screen; they still had about twenty minutes before the bell rang. He hoped Lance would have enough time to eat.

Keith could sense Lance approaching their table, but he still startled when the boy slid into the seat next to him.

“Hey, guys.” Lance was notably more subdued than normal, wearing his favorite jacket with the hood pulled over his head.

“Hey, man,” Hunk said, setting down his spoon, “are you gonna eat?”

Lance shook his head. “Not hungry.”

Keith glanced at the other boy. Lance looked like he hadn’t slept well; there were faint shadows beneath his eyes, and his jacket was crumpled as if he had slept in it. His fingers drummed on the tabletop, and his eyes were fixed in front of him, actively ignoring the whispers that had erupted with his arrival in the cafeteria.

“I’ll go grab you a tray,” Hunk said, rising from the table. “I think you should eat  _ something, _ at least.”

Lance nodded, wordlessly offering his school ID; Hunk accepted the small card and disappeared to get another tray.

Over the years, Keith had gotten very good at reading people, and right now he could tell that Lance wanted to bolt. He could feel everyone’s stares boring into his back, and they weren’t even staring at  _ him. _

Pidge glanced up. “Hey, Lance, I had this question on my English homework? Keith tried to help earlier but he couldn’t make sense of it.”

Lance leaned forward as Pidge pushed her textbook toward him. They fell into a discussion about clauses and verbs, and Keith pulled out his sketchbook. There was an idea tingling in the back of his mind as he noticed Lance’s fidgeting; fingers tapping the table, the textbook, his thighs, his wrists. Keith kept one ear on the conversation as he drew lines and swirls, dots and fragments of geometric shapes. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was making, but he knew what he was doing nevertheless. He had done this for Shiro more times than he could count.

His older brother always came home from work stressed and on edge. It was part of being a police officer, part of the job. He always had a hard time unwinding from the stress and anxiety of each day, and though Adam and Keith had bought him adult coloring books at first, Keith realized he quite liked making his own designs that Shiro could fill with color. It was calming for the both of them, and Keith had made more of those designs than he could count.

He wasn’t sure what possessed him to draw something for Lance. He’d never done so before, but seeing Lance’s nervousness, he knew he couldn't just do nothing. He didn’t want Lance to be afraid, or anxious.

Pidge had the right idea, Keith thought. As Lance helped her with her English homework (that Keith hadn’t actually  _ touched, _ despite what Pidge said) Keith could see the tension draining from him as he was absorbed by the task. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but Keith thought that everyone was also staring less, instead returning to their meals and conversations.

“Thanks, Lance,” Pidge said, relief written all over her face. “You probably just saved my grades!”

“You have  _ amazing _ grades, kid genius,” Lance said, ruffling Pidge’s hair. “I only helped you with your homework.”

“Well, thanks for that,” Pidge said, rising to her feet and shoving her papers in her bag. She glanced apologetically at Lance. “Sorry, I have a robotics meeting like, right now, so I’d better go before I’m late.”

Lance waved her away. “Go be smart, Pidgeotto.” The girl stuck her tongue out at the nickname, but shouldered her huge backpack-it was nearly larger than she was-before disappearing into the crowd.

Almost as soon as she had left, Hunk appeared with Lance’s food tray.

“I’m guessing Pidge already went to the meeting?” He asked, sliding the tray in front of Lance.

Keith grunted an affirmative, focusing on the texture of some of the shapes he was integrating into the design. Lance accepted his food with thanks.

Hunk stood there for a moment, as if unsure what to do. Lance removed the spoon from his mouth. “Dude, go to your meeting. I know you have it, and I know you need to be there.”

Hunk hesitated. “Are you sure? I can have Pidge fill me in, maybe I can talk to the coaches-”

Lance shook his head, waving a hand to get Hunk to stop. “Nah, this meeting’s super important, if what you told me earlier is true. You really should be there, I think.”

Hunk still looked unsure, reluctant to leave his best friend to the mercy of the other students who were watering at the mouth for details about Lance’s near-mugging.

Lance stood, draping an arm over the boy’s shoulders. “Hunk, my man, my dude, my buddy, my pan pal, you don’t have to worry about me.” He met Hunk’s eyes. “I’ll be okay. Really. Go to your meeting.”

Hunk let out a heavy breath, then wrapped Lance up in a bone-crushing hug. “Aw, man, you’re the best!” He released Lance and gathered his things, checking the time on his phone. “Oh, quiznack, I’m going to be late!” He waved goodbye to Lance, patted Keith’s shoulder, and disappeared.

Lance sank back down beside Keith, nibbling on his roll, though he didn’t seem particularly hungry.

They sat in silence for a moment, only the sound of Keith’s marker moving over the paper. He was nearly finished now, and if he hurried he could give it to Lance before the bell rang.

The boy in question seemed to be more tense with every passing second, his shoulders steadily rising toward his ears. Keith could see people glancing at him, even others start to approach before apparently changing their minds and backing away into the safety of their cluster of friends.

Gathering his courage, Keith lightly tapped Lance’s arm with the end of his marker. Lance turned his head to meet Keith’s eyes.

“Are you okay?” Keith’s voice was quiet, but he knew Lance heard him.

The other boy hesitated, eyes shifting to stare at the tabletop. “I… I don’t know. I mean, I’m not hurt, but that was… really kinda freaky, you know?” Lance blew out a heavy breath, wrapping his arms around his middle. “I mean, I got to meet Spider-Man, which was pretty cool, and he walked me home so that I would feel safer, which is good because there’s no  _ way _ I could have possibly walked home by myself after that… but I thought that was it, you know? I got a gun pointed at my face, which was freaky, but now I can move on and forget about it.” He let out a humorless chuckle. “Everyone else had other plans, apparently.”

Keith’s grip tightened on his marker. He was starting to want to get in on whatever plan of revenge Pidge had been talking about. The silence that followed was awkward, filled with the echoes of everything Lance had said.

“So, you met Spider-Man?” Keith asked, hoping for a positive response. Perhaps it would take Lance’s mind off of the staring students.

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Lance said, and he sounded more open and comfortable that time.

Keith hesitated. “What… what was he like?”

He was  _ curious, _ okay? It wasn’t every day that he got an opinion of himself from his crush… not that Lance knew he was Spider-Man, of course. He knew Pidge would tease him  _ endlessly _ if she found out.

“He was actually pretty cool!” Lance seemed to brighten, his posture relaxing as he turned to face Keith fully. “He just dropped in there and was like, ‘pow, pow pow!’” The last few words were accentuated by air punches. “I mean, the guy’s a badass!  _ And _ he’s actually pretty nice, once you get talking to him! I was a little afraid that he’d turn out to be an asshole, but he’s really sweet and he walked me home and everything!”

Keith felt his lips twitch up at the corners, though he hid it behind a sip from his water bottle. Lance’s smile turned a little shy.

“And, I mean, I was  _ not _ going to file any complaints about the skintight suit.”

Keith’s eyes widened, and he choked on his water, barely managing to keep his sketchbook dry as he coughed. Lance patted his back, looking slightly concerned, but Keith managed to regain control of himself and the other boy pulled away.

They fell into a much more comfortable silence; most of the students had finished with their meals and left the cafeteria, and those were studying or reading, far too absorbed to stare and gossip.

Keith lifted the marker from the page, scanning it in satisfaction. The design had turned out to be a lioness, sitting proudly with her tail curling around her legs. Her face was a starburst of jagged lines forming geometric shapes leading down to her neck, which was a swirl of dots and curves all overlapping each other. Her chest was more swirls and dots, with some more geometric shapes as well. It had turned out to be one of his more detailed designs, and Keith was pleasantly surprised at how it had turned out.

Lance had discarded his tray and was sitting beside Keith again. He seemed reluctant to leave. At Keith’s questioning glance, Lance explained, nervously tapping his fingers against the table.

“As soon as I walk into class, everyone stares at me like I have purple hair. Just makes it really hard to focus on my work, you know?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah.” He paused, mustering his courage. “You know, I… uh, might be able to help a bit.”

Lance tilted his head at him curiously, and Keith slid the sheet of paper bearing the lioness design over to him. Lance’s eyes snapped to the paper and widened in surprise as Keith struggled to explain.

“You know those adult coloring books? Shiro really likes them, but we don’t always have them on hand so sometimes I draw one up. I- they help calm him down, you know, and I thought maybe it could help you…”

Lance looked up at Keith, and he was smiling. It was different from most of his smiles. This one was softer, shyer, more genuine.

Keith swallowed and dug out his pack of markers, sliding the black one back in. After a moment’s deliberation, he offered the pack to Lance.

“These work really well with getting into the tiny spaces, and coloring some of the big spots too, if you want to borrow them.”

Lance hesitated, eyes flicking to Keith’s. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah. You can just give them back when you finish the page.” Keith wasn’t sure how his voice was staying so steady, because his hands were sweating and he thought he might pass out.

Finally, Lance accepted the pack of markers. “Thank you,” he murmured.

Keith swallowed again, turning his attention to shoving the sketchbook back into his backpack. “You’re welcome.”

“You know…” Lance mused thoughtfully after both boys had gathered their things, “I think that’s the most I ever heard you talk at once.”

Keith blinked in surprise, unsure of how to respond. It was true he didn’t say much at the best of times, but around Lance he got all stuttery and flustered and so he usually spoke even less.

He was saved by the bell ringing through the cafeteria, the last few stragglers from lunch rising and gathering their things.

Lance and Keith headed for the doors together, but their next classes were in opposite directions. As Keith turned to head for class, Lance called out to him. When Keith turned, Lance smiled at him. It was the same soft, genuine smile from before.

“Seriously, dude. Thanks.”

Keith couldn’t help but smile back, his lips twitching upward at the corners. “Anytime.”

* * *

**Group Chat: We Dem Boiz**

**hunkthepunk:** movie night at my place remember

**hunkthepunk:** who all can come

**hunkthepunk:** my mama wants to make hot cocoa and she needs to know how much to make

**hunkthepunk:** i know lance has work. pidge? keith?

**LanceyLanceDance:** i actually dont have work

**LanceyLanceDance:** my boss gave me a few days off after…

**LanceyLanceDance:** you know

**hunkthepunk:** are you sure you dont wanna just rest tonite, man

**LanceyLanceDance:** i wont get much sleep even if i tried

**LanceyLanceDance:** besides ur mama makes the best hot cocoa i have ever had the pleasure of drinking

**LanceyLanceDance:** if you think i am going to miss out on that you are sorely mistaken

**hunkthepunk:** what about pidge and keith

**LanceyLanceDance:** i know pidge has her internship at altea, but usually she’s done with that in time for the movie

**LanceyLanceDance:** idk about keith tho

**LanceyLanceDance:** hey

**LanceyLanceDance:** pidge

**LanceyLanceDance:** keith

**LanceyLanceDance:** yall should come to movie night

**LanceyLanceDance:** piiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge

**LanceyLanceDance:** keeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiith

**LanceyLanceDance:** guuuuuuuuuuuuuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys

**LanceyLanceDance:** pidge ur so evil y wont you answer

**littlegreengremlin:** quiznack lance what do u want

**littlegreengremlin:** stop blowing up my phone im working

**hunkthepunk:** r u or keith coming to movie night

**hunkthepunk:** i know crowds arent really his thing but i think it would be fun

**littlegreengremlin:** ik im always trying to make him get out of the house more

**littlegreengremlin:** we’re both kinda busy rn but he’s with me

**littlegreengremlin:** ill persuade him :)

**LanceyLanceDance:** eeeeeeeviiiiiiiiiiiiiilllll :)

* * *

Keith webbed the gun from the robber’s hand and stuck him to the wall, then paused and spoke into his comms.

“You want me to do  _ what?” _

“Come to the movie night at Hunk’s house. It’ll be fun.”

Keith shook his head as he swung away, the sounds of approaching sirens reaching his ears. “Pidge, I’m working.”

“Come on, Keith. You are in this squad, so you have to  _ act _ like you’re in this squad.” Her voice was firm but playful as Keith perched atop a row of apartment buildings.

“I just… I don’t know if they want me there,” he said, scanning the bustling streets below.

“Hunk and Lance are blowing up the group chat asking if you’re coming. I think that means they want you to come.”

“Besides,” Romelle chimed in, “you can’t spend your whole life being Spider-Man!”

“She’s right!” Coran exclaimed. “You must enjoy your youth while you have it!”

“See?” Pidge said smugly. “Everyone agrees that you should go.”

“Allura didn’t,” Keith said, knowing he was being difficult. It was just… he’d only ever had movie nights with Shiro, sometimes Adam or the Holts. Never with his group of friends. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t reluctant.

“It is a quiet night, Keith,” Allura said into the comms. “Perhaps everyone’s right; it may do you good to enjoy yourself while you can.”

“Please?” Pidge asked. “I know this isn’t usually your thing, but I really think you’ll like it.”

Keith sighed heavily, pushing off and heading back toward the towering glass skyscraper in the distance that was Altea.

“Fine.”

* * *

**Group Chat: We Dem Boiz**

**littlegreengremlin:** we’re both coming

**littlegreengremlin:** just gotta finish up at altea then we’re on our way

**hunkthepunk:** yay! ill tell my mama that everyones coming

**LanceyLanceDance:** i knew bullying you would work

**LanceyLanceDance:** it always does

**littlegreengremlin:** lance no offense but you are about as intimidating as a kitten

**littlegreengremlin:** you couldnt bully me if you tried

**LanceyLanceDance:** rUDE

**LanceyLanceDance:** i cant believe i associate with you

**LanceyLanceDance:** hunk youll back me up right

**LanceyLanceDance:** hunk

**LanceyLanceDance:** please hunk

**LanceyLanceDance:** my man

**LanceyLanceDance:** my dude

**LanceyLanceDance:** my pan pal

**hunkthepunk:** sorry bi buddy, pidge’s right

**hunkthepunk:** ur not very scary man

**LanceyLanceDance:** …...i feel so lost

**LanceyLanceDance:** betrayed by my own kin

**LanceyLanceDance:** how could you

**hunkthepunk:** sorry man but its true

**littlegreengremlin:** console lance, hunk

**littlegreengremlin:** im gonna leave u to it, ive got to finish up

The movie night went about the same way they always did: arguing over blankets and pillows, bickering over which movie to watch, and then eventually curling up on the couch in a mess of limbs and blankets so it was impossible to tell where one person ended and the other began. Keith ended up between Pidge and Lance, and he was positive that the girl had given up her seat to purposely crush him against the other boy.

He didn’t really mind it, though.

Hunk’s mama was really a very nice woman, with a huge smile just like her son and dark hair pulled back into a loose bun. The hot cocoa was the best he had ever tasted in his life, creamy and chocolatey and warming him clear down to his toes.

The teens curled on the couch, all nursing warm mugs while flipping through Netflix and arguing over what to watch.

“I’m tellin you, man, Lemonade Mouth is the way to go! That movie is a  _ classic!” _ Lance cried indignantly.

“It is a classic,” Hunk said, “but it’s Keith’s first movie night! That means we watch The Princess Bride!”

“Hunk’s right,” Pidge said, after a long sip of cocoa. “We always watch that for the first timers.”

Lance protested again, but eventually buckled and let Hunk choose the movie. Keith sat throughout it all, just listening, and when Hunk or Lance asked if he wanted to choose, he declined; he didn’t really know much about the options, and he much preferred to just sit and listen to his friends’ easy banter.

It was an odd movie about a princess and some farmer boy falling in love, but being separated. There were some funny parts though; and Pidge firmly stated that she had never seen a more “quotable” movie. Throughout the whole movie Keith was painfully aware of Lance pressing up against his entire side; he could feel Lance’s laugh rumble against his arm whenever something funny happened, and the sensation warmed Keith more than the hot cocoa did.

Lance never said anything about the design Keith had given him earlier that day; but Keith noticed the page poking out of Lance’s backpack in the front. He couldn’t see the whole page, but what he could see of the lioness was a swirled mix of different shades of blue.

When the movie was over, after eating more snacks provided by Hunk’s mom and mama, Pidge and Keith went home. Lance didn’t; he was sleeping over at Hunk’s house.

As Keith walked in the door, Shiro glanced up from where he was seated at the table, reading glasses perched on his nose as he worked on one of Keith’s designs. He smiled at Keith, setting his colored pencils aside; they rolled across the table and clinked against his empty coffee mug.

“How was it?”

Keith set his backpack down on his chair, plucking up the mug and refilling it with cocoa; Shiro never drank coffee, except in the mornings. Cocoa was his relaxation drink after a long, hard day at work. 

“It was really fun,” Keith said, handing Shiro his mug, and he realized he meant it. It wasn’t just sitting next to Lance for a few hours-though Keith certainly didn’t mind that part. It was hanging out with friends for no reason other than to just… hang out.

Shiro smiled at Keith, charcoal gray eyes warm and soft. “I’m glad that you’ve got such a good group of friends. They all seem really cool.”

Keith was glad, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Banging pots and pans together* KEITH NEEDS GOOD FRIENDS KEITH NEEDS GOOD FRIENDS
> 
> In case you're wondering, yes, "pan pal" and "bi buddy" are nicknames my friend and I gave each other ;p
> 
> And if you ever get the chance, please do watch The Princess Bride if you haven't. It's one of my favorite movies and it's frickin hilarious xD idk if it's actually on Netflix tho :p
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!! Be sure to leave a comment telling me what you think of the chapter ;)
> 
> Stay safe everyone!! xxx


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, I'm back again!! Sorry for the radio silence! Life's been a bitch
> 
> Last chapter was kinda a filler episode, but we're continuing with the plot today! I'm way excited to continue this first arc so I hope y'all like it! I'm dropping lots of hints and Easter eggs, so keep an eye out for those canon Spider-Man details ;)))
> 
> A brief note: Coran's nicknames for Keith and Pidge are currently Number One and Number Two. As the rest of Team Voltron is brought into play, the nicknames will change accordingly ;)

**Group Chat: Spider-Man’s Impulse Control**

**Samurai42:** pls tell me you guys have found something on that guy

**Samurai42:** why the hell was he all purple and freaky

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** i have yet to find anything in the archives

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** i was hoping number two could help me search

**littlegreengremlin:** why are you calling me number two?

**littlegreengremlin:** im not that much shorter than keith guys

**Samurai42:** you’re short enough

**Samurai42:** i could toss you across the street with one hand

**littlegreengremlin:** you literally STOPPED AND LIFTED a moving car two days ago

**littlegreengremlin:** you could yeet HUNK across the street with one hand

**littlegreengremlin:** i may not be able to punch your face but i sure as hell can still fight you

**littlegreengremlin:** watch out for your kneecaps bitch

**littlegreengremlin:** anyway yes, i can help with that coran

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** excellent

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** i will be yeeting forward to working with you 8{D

**littlegreengremlin:** …….i dont even know what to say to that

**RapunzelLetDownYourHair:** i was hoping you could also help me out with some of the lab stuff tonite

**littlegreengremlin:** like… spider-man lab stuff, or ACTUAL lab stuff

**RapunzelLetDownYourHair:** actual lab stuff :( boring i know

**RapunzelLetDownYourHair:** this is a fun project tho, i think youll like it

**littlegreengremlin:** sure thing romelle

**littlegreengremlin:** i mean technically i am supposed to be helping with actual lab stuff every day

**littlegreengremlin:** sorry allura :/

**silverspacegoddess:** dont be, its for a good cause

**silverspacegoddess:** youre still a great help at the lab, even when youre busy helping keith

**littlegreengremlin:** aww stop youre making me blush

**silverspacegoddess:** ;)

**Samurai42:** pidge can blush??

**littlegreengremlin:** ha ha

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** dont you two have school

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** an education is an important opportunity, numbers one and two

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** dont squander it! a good education will keep you all out of prison.

**GorgeousMoustacheMan:** hopefully 8{D

**littlegreengremlin:** fine fine

Keith set his phone down on the table, screen down. Technically lunch was a “free hour,” so students were allowed to use their phones, but he hadn’t been able to finish his history homework because of the movie night, and it was due today. So he bent over his work, trying to tune out the chatter of the cafeteria.

Pidge had plopped next to him and dropped her heavy pile of textbooks with a heavy thud, and was now poring over her notes with Hunk on their robotics project. Lance sat across from Keith, only picking at his food.

He still looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept well at all. Keith wondered if he was having nightmares.

Keith sighed and went back to his homework, though he couldn’t focus on it. He and Pidge hadn’t yet had a chance to discuss whatever the hell happened two days ago, and the odd way that man had acted. Romelle, Coran and Allura were all incredibly knowledgeable in their respective fields; it often seemed that, between the three of them, they always had all the answers. But none of them had answers for what had happened with the man. Coran, with his extensive medical prowess and knowledge of the human body, Romelle, with her expertise on technology, and Allura, with hers on quintessence, the energy that is generated by all living things… even with all of their combined knowledge, nobody had any idea what had happened to that man to make him like that.

Keith remembered the pale purple skin, the bloodred marks slashed down the man’s cheeks, the glowing yellow eyes, the echoing, rasping voice. He remembered the way the man had seemed to lose consciousness, then reawaken… and everything was back to normal. His skin had been a deep tan, his eyes a normal brown.

It made Keith uneasy. He didn’t like not knowing what was going on; even more, he hated the idea of a dangerous person wandering the streets unchecked. Whatever had happened with the man, someone had been purposely trying to cause as much damage and injury as possible. As long as someone like that was on the streets, his city wasn’t safe. Which meant that Keith  _ had _ to find whoever was responsible.

He had his work cut out for him tonight.

“-eith, do you have any ideas?”

Keith startled, his gaze snapping to Hunk and Pidge, both leaning over their robotics project. He had been completely tuning out all the noise from the cafeteria, including their discussion, which meant that he had no idea what they were asking.

“Uh, what?”

Pidge smirked. “Eloquent as always. We’ve got this problem with the robot we’re thinking of designing, and we can’t think of a way around it. We were wondering if either of you have an idea?”

Keith, who was in no way a science buff, especially next to Pidge, had absolutely zero ideas on how to solve their problem.

“What’s the issue?” Lance asked, leaning over the table to peer at their notes. Keith copied his movements; he should at least  _ try _ to help, after all, even if he knew he wouldn’t be able to contribute much.

“We have this super cool idea for a floating robot,” Hunk explained, gesturing to the notes and sketches, “but we can’t figure out how to evenly distribute the weight with the engine and everything.”

“If we put the engine in the center,” Pidge explained, tapping the diagram with her pencil, “then it’s too heavy and drags the robot down. But if we put it at the top, it’s too top-heavy, and we can’t put it on the sides, either, because it’ll imbalance the robot and make it fall.”

She rubbed her eyes with a groan. “I cannot even function right now,” she grumbled. “There is no way I have the energy to think about this.”

Keith examined the diagram to get a closer look. He could see the sketches for a relatively small, cube-shaped robot. The sketch itself was clean cut and neat, but all around it were scrawled notes in both Hunk’s large, neat writing, and Pidge’s jagged, compact hand. Despite the notes, Keith couldn’t make much sense of it. Science and math were not his strongest subjects.

Lance, however, peered closer at the diagram. Keith could almost see the lightbulb appear above his head.

“What if you changed the shape?” Lance asked, motioning toward the diagram.

“What do you mean?” Hunk frowned at the page, brows furrowing.

“Well, it’s a cube right now,” Lance said, “and you’re having all these problems with distributing the weight evenly. What if you changed the shape, and built it as like, a pyramid, instead?”

Pidge and Hunk tilted their heads in unison, considering. Lance continued.

“If it’s in a pyramid shape, the weight from the engine won’t drag it down, and it’ll stay afloat easier. The air resistance will help keep it off the ground, I think.”

He sat back with a shrug. “I don’t know, just a thought.”

Pidge erased the diagram of the cube, sketching out a pyramid. She hummed and scribbled out calculations, scratching them out occasionally and starting again. The only sound was the rough scrape of her pencil on the paper. After a long moment, she set down her pencil; Keith half-expected it to be smoking from the friction.

“Lance,” she said finally, setting down the diagram and locking eyes with the Cuban boy, “you are a quiznacking genius.”

Hunk shot to his feet, enveloping Lance in a giant bear hug. “Aww, thanks, man! You’re the best!”

Lance blinked at Keith over Hunk’s shoulder; he looked completely shell-shocked.

“Uhh, if I’m being completely honest, I didn’t think that would solve the problem,” Lance mumbled when Hunk released him.

“Well, it did!” Hunk exclaimed, beaming. “This calls for the Bro Handshake!”

Lance’s expression brightened.

Keith blinked, not knowing what that meant. Pidge, seeing his look of confusion, nudged him with her elbow.

“You gotta see this,” she whispered. “Their Bro Handshake is  _ legendary.” _

Keith turned his attention to the two boys, who were engaging in a complicated handshake that involved lots of twirling, hand clapping, finger guns, and interlocked arms. Both boys were grinning widely as they moved through the rapid, complex motions that Keith could barely follow. Lance laughed out loud as Hunk spun him around, and Keith couldn’t help but smile. The handshake lasted longer than any handshake Keith had ever seen, finally ending in a huge bear hug. Both boys were laughing now, as Hunk released Lance and they sat back down. Lance’s eyes were sparkling, and he looked more at ease than he had since being attacked.

Pidge elbowed him again. “Whipped,” she hissed in his ear with an evil grin.

Keith shoved her away. “Shut up,” he muttered.

Hunk was still chuckling as he looked over the diagram once more. “With this modification, Rover’s gonna knock the other robots out of the park!”

Pidge’s eyes gleamed behind her glasses. “I can’t wait to see Mrs. Ryner’s face when we get him to float,” she cackled, rubbing her hands together like a cartoon villain.

“Speaking of which,” Hunk interjected, slipping the diagram into a folder, “I won’t be able to get to today’s meeting. Mr. Thace needs my help at the F.E.A.S.T center this afternoon. His boss is out of town, so she left him in charge while she’s gone, and he’s swamped!”

“No worries,” Pidge said easily, waving a hand. “I’ll handle it. Good luck at F.E.A.S.T.”

* * *

Keith was glad his next class was so easy, because Pidge was plotting. He had already completed his art project for the week, and so had free time. Pidge was in her technology class, and she was either slacking or she, too, had completed for the week. The two classes, being extracurriculars, had relaxed atmospheres with easygoing teachers who didn’t care if students were on their phones if their work was complete.

**littlegreengremlin:** so ive been researching

**littlegreengremlin:** i got scans of that dude’s face through your mask, and ive been looking for matches

**Samurai42:** ...you can do that?

**littlegreengremlin:** one of the many features in your new mask :)

**littlegreengremlin:** its nothing big, just scanning the internet for matches. ive narrowed the search down to the nyc area to make it easier to find the guy

**littlegreengremlin:** the search is picking up pics, social media accounts, anything. ill find him in a few ticks

 **Samurai42:** ........

**Samurai42:** did you find anything?

**_littlegreengremlin has sent a picture_ **

**_littlegreengremlin has sent a picture_ **

**littlegreengremlin:** this is all i found on the guy. hes got a facebook, but he hardly uses it.

**Samurai42:** …..Leo Rodriguez. doesnt ring any bells

**littlegreengremlin:** ya me either

**littlegreengremlin:** seems like a normal dude tho

**littlegreengremlin:** are you sure its the same guy

**Samurai42:** yes. thats the man who was driving the car two nights ago.

**littlegreengremlin:** ….eerie. he looks completely normal. has a goldfish and everything.

**Samurai42:** i know. im going to investigate tonight. after newspaper.

**Samurai42:** we’re going to get to the bottom of this

* * *

“You’re sure this is where Leo lives?” Keith was perched on the side of an ancient apartment building, slapped together by crumbling brick and concrete. Frankly, it looked like it might collapse in the next year.

“Yep,” Pidge said, popping the ‘p’. “You’ll find him here.”

“Be careful, Keith,” Allura advised. “You don’t know what you’re going into.”

“I will,” Keith murmured.

“Start crawling up the wall,” Pidge instructed. “I’ll tell you when you’re outside his window.”

Keith complied, creeping up the crumbling brick wall. It had taken lots of practice, but now Keith could traverse vertical surfaces as easily as walking down the sidewalk.

“Here,” Pidge instructed after a time. Keith crept to the side where he was out of sight, cautiously peering in through the window.

Leo Rodriguez was there, sitting at a desk and bent over several scattered sheets of paper. The only illumination came from a desk lamp near his head.

_ Here goes nothing, _ Keith thought, before gently tapping on the window pane.

Leo’s head snapped up, and the man looked around. When he caught sight of Keith, his eyes widened, and he stood quickly, knocking his chair back in his haste to get across the room. Leo cautiously cracked the window open, about as wide as Keith’s hand.

“S-Spider-Man?” Leo stuttered, staring at him.

Keith raised a hand in greeting. “‘Sup.”

“Um, what are, what are you doing here?”

“I need to speak to you about what happened two nights ago, at about this time of night,” Keith said. “It’s important.”

Leo swallowed, blinking rapidly. “Oh-okay. Uh, do you, um, wanna come in?”

Keith nodded. “If that’s all right with you.”

Leo slid the window the rest of the way open before stepping aside and allowing Keith to clamber inside. It was a small room, with a narrow bed in one corner, and a dresser beside it. Despite the general disrepair of the building, the room was clean and neat. Only the desk was cluttered, with the sheets of paper that Leo had been working on when Keith arrived. He could now see that they were covered in sketches of clothing, tunics and capes and dresses.

Leo himself wore jeans and a faded Aerosmith T-shirt. He was younger than Keith initially thought, about college age with short, curly brown hair and freckles.

“I’m studying to be a fashion designer,” Leo explained quietly, gesturing to the drawings. He seemed to have gotten over the initial shock and surprise at seeing Spider-Man knocking at his window. “What do you need to talk to me about? Have I been doing something wrong?”

“You haven’t been doing anything wrong,” Keith promised. “I am just in the middle of an investigation, and I need you to answer some questions that I have.”

Leo nodded slowly, brow furrowing.

Keith exhaled, then began. “Do you remember what happened two days ago?”

Leo hesitated, brows furrowing further. “I… not really, but I’ve been told that I was driving drunk. Which doesn’t really make sense, since I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in years!” The young man sighed, twisting his fingers together. “I… I don’t know what else it could have been, though. I went to the emergency room… I remember  _ that. _ It wasn’t a seizure, or a heart attack, or…  _ anything. _ I don’t know how I could have forgotten almost an entire hour of my life!”

“Your driving was dangerous,” Keith said. “You hurt a few people, and I had to pull you out of the vehicle while it was still moving.” He frowned, even though Leo wouldn't be able to see it. “You… don’t remember  _ any _ of that?”

Leo’s eyes widened. “I… I  _ hurt _ people? Are they all right? D-Did I… “

“Nobody was killed,” Keith broke in. “And the injuries weren’t very severe. Just a few bumps and bruises.”

“I don’t remember any of it,” Leo whispered, now looking thoroughly shaken. “I… I was heading home, and I was getting in my car… and then, next thing I knew, I was being taken to the emergency room.”

Keith hesitated. He could read people like books; it was something he’d always been good at, especially after he became Spider-Man. Leo looked afraid and confused; the more he looked, the surer Keith was that the other man was telling the truth.

“I don’t think he’s lying,” Allura murmured in his ear, voicing his thoughts.

“I need you to think,” Keith said. “I’m trying to find out who--or what--is really behind this, but I need your help.”

Leo’s face set in concentration, and they sat there in silence for several minutes. Finally, Leo sighed and shook his head.

“No good,” he mumbled. “You know when you have a dream, and you try and remember it, but it’s just… gone?” He sighed. “That’s what this is like. I… I can  _ feel _ it, somewhere, but I can’t reach it!” Leo’s brows were pinched in frustration, fists clenched in the material of his jeans.

Keith hesitated, thinking. Given time, Leo may remember something… but Keith couldn’t very well sit in the guy’s apartment until it happened.

“Do you own a phone?” Keith asked.

Leo blinked in surprise. “O-Of course I do.”

“Good,” Keith said. “I need you to try your best to remember anything you can about what happened while your memories were blank. If you remember something, contact me.”

He accepted the man’s phone and entered his contact information. One of the first things Pidge and Romelle had made for Keith had been an encrypted cell phone specifically for Spider-Man. It was untraceable and unhackable, and was what Keith used to contact people who didn’t know his true identity. It was this phone’s number that he typed into Leo’s phone, with the contact name “SP.”

Leo stared at the screen in wide-eyed shock, accepting his phone with shaking fingers.

“I need to know anything you can think of,” Keith said. “Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, just call me and tell me. Just in case it’s important.”

Leo swallowed and nodded firmly. “I… I won’t let you down, Spider-Man,” he promised.

Keith, almost at the window, paused and glanced back. “Thank you.”

He left Leo standing in his apartment, wide-eyed and clutching his phone to his chest.

* * *

There wasn’t much else that could be done now, until Leo called. Keith was perched atop a small restaurant, idly scrolling through his phone--his  _ actual _ phone, not the encrypted Spider-Man one.

Pidge had signed off early; she had had to help Romelle with her project, and so Keith, too, had signed off early. He hadn’t gone home, obviously, and was instead hanging upside down, concealed in the shadows. His mask was off, but his red hood was pulled over his dark hair.

Keith had been waiting for almost twenty minutes now, but, glancing at the time, he figured it should be almost closing time by now.

The Lion’s Den was a popular restaurant, run by a man named Blaytz. Keith only knew that last part from Lance, but nearly everyone had heard of the place’s fantastic milkshakes.

That wasn’t what Keith was there for, though. Hunk would be at the F.E.A.S.T center until very late, and so wouldn’t be able to come and walk with Lance. Keith didn’t want him to be alone, especially after being held at gunpoint on his way home only a few days previous.

Finally, the door swung open with a cheerful jingle, the lights blinking out. In front of the restaurant stood two people. Lance was immediately recognizable with his signature army jacket and jeans, but Keith didn’t recognize the other guy. He was large and broad-shouldered with kind eyes and a lazy grin. The other man--who had to be Blaytz, the owner of the restaurant, was wearing a dark blue sweater over his work uniform. He gently clapped Lance on the shoulder, his words carrying up to where Keith perched.

“You’re sure you’re all right to walk home? I can give you a lift if you need me to.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want you to be late getting home,” Lance said. “It’s already pretty late, and I know your husband will be waiting for you.”

“Are you sure” Blaytz asked. “It’s kind of dark, and it wouldn’t be any trouble at all…”

“I’m sure,” Lance said with a confident grin. “I’ll be okay.”

Blaytz nodded, pulling Lance into a gentle hug. They separated, and Blaytz climbed into his small car, and Lance turned and began to walk down the street.

Keith slipped his phone into his pocket and retrieved his mask from where he had webbed it to the wall, pulling it over his face before leaping to the next building to follow Lance.

Despite Lance’s earlier words, he looked nervous and anxious, constantly glancing to the sides, and walking quickly. It was clear that he wanted nothing more than to just be at home.

Keith leaped ahead to a lamppost that Lance hadn’t passed yet, then slid down on a web, hanging upside down in Lance’s field of vision. The last thing he wanted to do was startle him.

Lance’s eyes snapped to Keith, and he paused a few feet away.

“Hey,” Keith said.

Lance blinked at him, seemingly lost for words. “Hey yourself,” he managed. They stood only a few feet apart, their faces level.

“You look like a bat,” Lance finally said, lips twitching upward.

Keith snorted. “Actually, you do. You’re upside down.”

“I’m not the one hanging from a lamppost,” Lance pointed out, stepping closer.

“Good point,” Keith murmured, though he wasn’t really focused on their conversation anymore. Lance was standing close, so close Keith could count the faint freckles sprinkled across his nose and cheeks. How hadn’t he noticed them before? His eyes were bluer than Keith had thought; deep blue, like what he thought the ocean might look like.

Remembering why he was here, Keith neatly flipped, landing on his feet on the sidewalk.

Lance’s gaze didn’t leave him, though his cheeks were dusted with faint pink. “So, uh, what are you doing here?”

Keith hesitated. He hadn’t planned on coming to see Lance; he’d been well on his way home before he suddenly started swinging toward where he knew the Lion’s Den was.

“I wanted to check on you,” he said finally. It wasn’t a lie. “I’ve been worried, especially after that asshole posted the video. Whoever he was.” Also not a lie.

Lance winced. “You… saw that?”

Keith nodded. “I don’t know who took the video,” he said, “but I’m sure it wasn’t what you wanted, having that all over the internet.”

Lance swallowed, nodding. “Y-Yeah,” he murmured. “I kinda freaked when I saw all my notifications the next morning. My best friend deleted all my social media so that people couldn’t message me about it.”

“That was probably smart,” Keith said, absently tapping his fingers together. “I’m sorry it happened like that.”

“Me, too,” Lance murmured. He glanced up at Keith through his bangs. He looked almost… bashful. “Are you… here to walk me home again?”

Keith shrugged. “If you’re comfortable with it.”

A slow, shy smile spread across Lance’s face. “I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me :( I promise there will be an ACTUAL Spider-Man Kiss(TM) before this fic is over!!
> 
> Blaytz has lowkey adopted Lance because he is the only good boss I will stan in this house. And Hunk would ABSOLUTELY work at F.E.A.S.T (a homeless shelter in the Spider-Man universe), y'all can't change my mind :)
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!! Remember, comments give me life so please remember to tell me what you think of the chapter!! I love hearing from you all!! <3<3<3
> 
> You can find Hunk and Lance's Bro Handshake here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocjUgkLCilE&list=LL&index=1
> 
> Until I figure out how to imbed links in the notes, I'll just have to copy and paste the URL.....anyway, I had a lot of fun looking for a handshake that fit them, and this one was my favorite!!
> 
> Come yell at me on Tumblr! My personal username is angstyfangirl32, and my username for my writing blog is firedragonworks


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet Adam and gain insight on one of the villains. Shit goes down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! Long time no see!  
> I hope you all had a restful holiday season and a good new year :) It was nice taking a break from writing, but I'm happy to be back!
> 
> I have made a [playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEJXuzcRLpH4fdZBzxY_eAVlw79ZlQeSp) for the General VibeTM of this fic. I'll add songs as I see fit, and if anyone has a suggestion of a song or artist they think would fit, just DM me and I'll check it out ;)
> 
> Most of Adam's headcanons and characterization is from subtlehysteria's [Surviving Space With Your Ex-Fiance](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1174466) series. It's definitely one of my all-time favorite Voltron fanfictions, with awesome headcanons, humor, action, angst, and probably the most well-written found family dynamic I've ever read. After reading and rereading that series countless times, I could not possibly imagine Adam any other way so here we are :) I highly encourage you to go check the fic out, because it's just beautiful.
> 
> TW for this chapter: mild blood and gun violence

Keith slipped through his window, creeping along the ceiling. It was only about seven o’clock; Shiro wouldn’t be getting home for a while, but Adam could very possibly have been home for hours. If anyone could discover his secret, Keith knew, it would be Adam. Shiro’s now-fiance was one of the most observant people Keith met. He was nosy, too; Keith was pretty sure he saw an entire folder on Adam’s laptop dedicated to blackmailing Shiro and Matt. Keith wouldn’t be surprised if there was blackmail material toward him, too.

It had been about two weeks since Keith had met with Leo for the first time. Since then, he’d walked Lance home almost every night; all the excitement regarding Lance being mugged had slowed down considerably, but Keith still found excuses to walk him home. It was…nice, being in the Spider-Man suit but not being in danger. Just…talking to the boy he liked, and making sure he got home safely.

Keith webbed the door closed and dropped from the ceiling, silently landing on the balls of his feet.

“Took you long enough,” Pidge said. Adam must have let her in.

Keith sighed. “Pidge, I have to be careful!” He turned to see the girl perched on the end of his bed, wrapped in a nest of blankets. “If Shiro finds out about this,” he gestured to his Spider-Man suit, “I’ll be grounded for life. If he doesn’t take me to jail.”

“Shiro won’t take you to jail,” Pidge said, crossing her legs. “He’ll just give you the Eyebrows of Disappointment.”

Keith turned to shuck off the suit. “I think I’d rather go to jail. The Eyebrows make me feel guilty and I  _ don’t like it.” _

“Ah! Keith!” Pidge yelped, covering her face with the blanket.

Keith rolled his eyes. “I’m not in my underwear, Pidge. Stop whining.”

The girl poked her head out, narrowing her eyes at him. “You’ve scarred me, Keith. I am never going to be the same again.”

Keith gestured to himself; he always wore leggings and a form-fitting shirt beneath the suit, in case he had to ditch it and blend in with a crowd quickly. It also helped keep him warm in the colder months. “I fail to see why  _ this _ is scarring. I’ve seen Shiro in his underwear before, and  _ that  _ is a scarring image I can never get out of my brain.”

“I can think of worse things than seeing my fiance in his underwear,” a new voice said.

Keith turned to see Adam leaning against the doorframe, glasses perched on the end of his nose. He must have come in while Keith and Pidge were arguing. Thankfully, Keith’s spider-suit was tucked away and out of sight beneath his bed already, otherwise Adam would have seen it.

Pidge gagged. “Never say those words again. Please.”

Keith shared her sentiment.

Adam just grinned shamelessly. “No sense lying.”

Pidge shuddered. “Adam, I would much rather you lie than say that again.”

Adam laughed. “I’d say I was sorry, but that would be untrue.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Any cute kids at school I need to know about? Other than a certain McClain that we all know?” He winked at Keith for that last part.

Keith glowered at Adam. “I know you arranged the seating chart so we were right next to each other. You’re the worst.”

Adam raised a finger. “First: you have no proof whatsoever that I did that on purpose. Second: you’ll thank me later.”

Adam was the history teacher at Keith and Pidge’s high school; and he had a tendency to make Pidge and Keith sit right by their crushes.

Keith sighed. It was useless trying to change Adam’s mind for anything; he was the most stubborn person Keith had ever met. If he wanted to make Keith sit by Lance every day in class, then Keith couldn’t stop him…not that he minded so much.

“You know, the best way to impress Lance would be to ace my test. He’d love that.”

“I am your fiance’s little brother, you know.” Keith said, giving Adam his curated Puppy Dog look. “Go easy on me.”

Adam just laughed. “When have you ever wanted things easy? Besides, you  _ know _ that look doesn’t work on me. Don’t forget, you’re practically  _ my _ little brother.”

Keith glowered, keeping up the act. Of course, he wasn’t really wanting to get off easy on the test. It was how he and Adam worked, this back-and-forth banter. Actually it was how Adam worked with most people.

Adam chuckled at Keith’s expression, ruffled Pidge’s hair, and stepped from the room. “Have fun studying. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.” He closed the door behind him. Adam usually made dinner at their apartment; after Shiro had tried to make a meal for him and ended up setting off the fire alarm in the building, Adam had banned him from the kitchen. Sometimes, when Adam was at the school late grading papers, Keith would cook, smacking Shiro’s flesh hand with a spatula whenever his older brother tried to step in. He wasn’t as good of a cook as Adam was, but Keith thought it was relaxing.

Pidge turned to Keith as soon as the door closed. “Why did you call me here? Couldn’t we have just done this over comms?”

Keith shook his head, pulling out his encrypted cell phone. “This is something we need to do together.”

Pidge straightened when she saw the device, pushing up her glasses. “Did he contact you?”

Keith nodded once. “Leo texted this phone earlier today. He remembered something about what happened.”

“It’s about time,” Pidge grumbled, and Keith swatted at her knee.

“He’s been through something traumatic. Try and go easy on him.”

“I can’t believe  _ you _ of all people are telling me to ‘go easy.’”

Keith huffed. “I don’t go easy on criminals, true, but Leo is  _ not _ one. He’s an ally.”

Pidge sighed, waving a dismissive hand as she snuggled deeper into the nest of blankets. “Fine, fine.”

Keith’s finger hovered over the call button, but he paused. “Wait…did you take those off my bed?”

Pidge, who had wriggled so deeply into the pile of blankets he could barely see her, just let out a muffled “...maybe.”

Keith sighed and shook his head. “You’re putting those back before you leave.”

Pidge stuck a hand out of the blanket nest to flip him off. “So be it.” Her words were so muffled it sounded like “Soviet.”

Keith let out a soft chuckle and turned his attention back to the phone. He pressed the call button and put it on speakerphone; Pidge stuck her head from the nest so she could hear; her already messy hair was wild now, sticking out in all directions like she’d stuck her finger in an electrical socket.

The phone rang once…twice…then Leo answered.

“H-Hello?”

“This is Leo, yes?” Keith was pressing the Spider-Man mask to his face so his voice filtered through the voice changer.

“Yes. I, uh, remembered something that I think you should know.”

“All right. Hit me with it.” Keith nodded to Pidge, who scrambled to grab her laptop and set it on a pile of pillows in front of her.

Leo hesitated on the other end. “I was having dreams, you know, and this one kept popping up, but now that I think of it, it might just be my zodiac sign? I mean, I’m a Pisces, so it’s totally probable. I’m sorry for bothering you, I know you’re busy and it’s probably nothing--”

“I won’t know if it’s nothing until I know what it is. Calm down and tell me,” Keith said, not unkindly.

Leo took a deep breath. “O-Okay. Okay. So, I was walking toward my car, right? It was the end of the day and I was heading home from work. I was just about to get in when someone stopped me. A lady, I think. She…looked really weird. Purple skin, red marks on her face, really creepy.”

Keith and Pidge exchanged an uneasy glance.

Leo continued. “She…she said something to me, I don’t remember what, then everything goes kinda fuzzy…that’s the last thing I remember before waking up to people taking me to the emergency room.”

Keith hesitated. “That…doesn’t sound like nothing. Thanks for telling me.”

Leo sighed. “I just wish I could remember more. That lady…it was like she was controlling me.”

Pidge nodded to herself, a thoughtful look on her face, though she didn’t speak.

“I’ll figure this out,” Keith promised. “If you remember anything else at all, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

“I will,” Leo promised.

Keith thanked him and ended the call. Immediately, Pidge leapt to her feet.

“I knew it!” She crowed triumphantly. “I knew he was being controlled by something!”

Keith set the phone down and rubbed his forehead. This was just another piece to add to an already complicated puzzle. Lives were at stake here; if Keith didn’t figure out who this mystery woman was and fast, people could get hurt.

Pidge lowered her arms and nudged Keith’s knee with her toes. “Hey. Stop thinking that this is all on you. I’m here to help, and we’ll bring this to Allura and the others to see what’s what.”

Keith sighed, running a hand through his dark hair; Pidge had practically read his mind. “I just don’t want you guys getting hurt,” he murmured. “This lady, whoever she is, is obviously dangerous. I don’t--”

“Bullshit,” Pidge said, cutting him off. “I signed up for this when I dragged you to Altea. Allura, Coran, Romelle, they all signed up for this when they decided to help us. We’re in this together, no matter what.”

Keith took a deep breath and tilted his head to look Pidge in the eye. His lips quirked upward at the corners. “Thanks, Pidge.”

The girl scoffed. “Don’t thank me, I’m only in this for Adam’s cooking.” She inhaled deeply and grinned. “Speaking of which…”

Keith leapt to his feet and followed Pidge as she threw his bedroom door open and tore down the stairs. Adam was working in the kitchen, wearing a Kiss the Cook apron that Shiro had gotten him a few months ago. Keith still wasn’t sure if Adam wore it as a joke or because he genuinely liked it. Knowing Adam, likely both.

“Whatcha making?” Pidge asked, peering into one of the pots. Keith reached to steal some sauce from the pan.

“Soba,” Adam replied, smacking Keith’s wrist with a wooden spoon without looking up from the noodles.

Keith recoiled and rubbed his wrist; it didn’t really hurt all that much, spider superpowers and all, but it stung like the devil.

Pidge snickered at him, and he stuck out his tongue.

“Keith, would you be an angel and set the table?” Adam asked in a sweet, innocent voice.

Keith smacked his arm on his way past to the plates.

Adam snorted and playfully kicked his shin. “That’s what you get for being a thief!”

Keith began setting out plates, as Pidge hissed from a smack from Adam after she tried to snitch in the noodles while he was by the sauce. Nobody had--nor ever would--be able to snitch in the food at the Shirogane household while Adam was there. The guy had eyes on the back of his head.

Shiro walked through the door just as Keith was setting up the last plate. Adam had roped Pidge into carrying the pots of food to the table while the former took off his apron and washed his hands.

Shiro hung up his jacket, punched Keith’s shoulder and ruffled Pidge’s hair in greeting, then kissed Adam on the cheek--to which the latter jerked away with a mock disgusted scowl before grabbing Shiro’s face and pulling him in for a kiss.

Behind the couple, Pidge met Keith’s eyes and pretended to gag.

After a few more playful jabs between Adam and Pidge, and Keith ducking to avoid Shiro’s bear hug, they all sat down to eat.

“So, how’s school going?” Shiro asked between bites of soba.

Pidge shrugged. “My history teacher is the  _ worst.” _

“Oh?” Shiro questioned, raising a brow at Adam, who blinked at him innocently. “Why’s that?”

“He arranged the seating so I’m sitting by a girl he thinks I should go out with.”

Adam smirked and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

Shiro sighed and turned to face Adam; his eyebrows turned down at the corners, his eyes sorrowful.

Of all the people who had faced them, Adam could withstand the Eyebrows of Disappointment the longest; he did so now with a carefully neutral stare.

The seconds ticked by, and Shiro’s expression didn’t change; Adam, though, was beginning to squirm.

Keith cleared his throat. “Shiro, I was wanting to ask you something.”

Shiro finally turned away from Adam, the Eyebrows returning to normal. “Yeah?”

Keith hesitated, choosing his words wisely. Shiro had been on the police force for years; if there were any past occurrences of whatever had happened to Leo or clues to find who was behind it, perhaps he would have something. “Have you…ever heard of someone who can mind-control someone else? Like, to do things they wouldn’t normally do?” For instance, driving an out-of-control vehicle with no care for who they injured--or--killed along the way?”

Under the table, Keith dodged Pidge’s kick to his shin that his Spider Senses had seen coming.

Shiro’s eyebrows bunched as he chewed his food, considering. Keith could feel Adam’s eyes burning into the side of his head, but he focused entirely on Shiro; if he met the man’s gaze Keith was certain he would give something away.

“Why are you asking?” Shiro said finally. “That’s awfully random.”

“We’re learning about it in biology,” Pidge said easily. “Some brain waves are so powerful, they’ve been said to be able to do some small degree of mind control. We’re wondering if you’ve ever come across someone like that.”

Keith had been taking the same biology class as Pidge for years, so he knew for sure that she was pulling that explanation out of her ass. He hadn’t exactly given her more options though, and Pidge was doing excellent considering the circumstances.

Shiro tilted his head. His prosthetic fingers absently tapped the wood table. “I never have, no. That seems like something out of a movie.”

“It’s just theoretical,” Keith blurted. “We’re trying to figure out if it’s possible or not.”

Shiro shrugged. “I’m not a scientist,” he said. “I’ve got no idea.”

Adam still hadn’t said anything; when Keith finally mustered up enough courage to look him in the eye, his brother’s fiance was glancing between Keith and Pidge, his face unreadable.

Then Keith tensed; a moment later, the sound of sirens rose above the general bustle of New York City traffic.

At the same time, Shiro’s phone chimed; he leapt to his feet, reaching for his coat. His apologetic gray gaze landed on Adam, Keith and Pidge. “Duty calls. Something’s up.”

Adam stood and pecked him on the cheek. “Don’t die.”

Shiro nodded absently, already shifting into Officer Mode. He strode to the door, calling over his shoulder. “Don’t wait up for me!”

The door closed with a resounding bang. Pidge and Keith exchanged a glance; this certainly didn’t look good.

“He always says that,” Adam muttered to himself. “He seems to forget that I have never gone to bed before eleven and probably never will.”

Pidge rose to her feet, clearing her throat. “Thanks for having me over, but my mom just texted. I’d better be getting home.”

Adam’s lips quirked upwards at the corners. “You don’t have to thank me, gremlin. Door’s always open.” He and Pidge fist-bumped, and she hurried to take her dishes to the sink.

Keith stood as well “I’ll walk with you,” he offered. “It’s getting dark.”

Pidge shrugged. “‘Aight.”

Keith practically ran up the stairs; his adrenaline was pumping, rising with the sound of sirens as his Spidey Sense went into overdrive; it was all he could do to keep from launching out the nearest window right that moment.

He nearly knocked his bedroom door down in his haste to get through; he threw on his suit, stuffing the mask in his pocket and yanking on a pair of loose sweatpants and a sweater to conceal the suit.

He pulled on his shoes and pounded back down the stairs. Pidge was waiting by the door, chatting with Adam. When she saw Keith coming, she waved goodbye to Shiro’s fiance. “See ya later, Adam.”

“See you. Don’t forget to study; don’t think I won’t fail you,” he added with mock strictness.

Pidge guffawed as Keith led her out the door.

The moment they were out of sight, the two teens were running, their playful facades dropped as they raced for the sound of sirens.

In a now-empty apartment, Adam stood by the table where Keith and Pidge had left him. He was gazing at the door, head tilted, eyes narrowed and slightly unfocused.

_ How interesting. _

* * *

As soon as they were far enough away from the apartment, Keith dove into a side alley out of sight from the street and tore off his clothes. Pidge was just finishing shoving his discarded clothing into her backpack when he swung up to the roof of the building.

“Get to Altea, quick,” Keith instructed, pulling on his mask. Pidge didn’t reply; she disappeared in a flash of green and brown. She was awfully fast for someone with such short legs.

Keith swung from the building, following the sound of sirens. He dove, the wind whipping at his hood as he gathered speed and momentum. He swung smoothly from the dive, climaxing in a neat flip.

Swinging had gotten to be as natural as walking, even with the aerial acrobatics involved.

There was a sharp crackle in his ear as Pidge connected the comms.

“I’m here,” she gasped, sounding out of breath. “Coran’s with me.”

“The disturbance is happening three blocks away from your position, Keith,” Coran said.

“Got it.” Keith briefly touched down on the side of a building to push off and propel himself forward.

He saw what was happening a moment later; police cars were on the chase; a huge white van was veering around sharp corners, gunfire erupting from the back.

Keith swung around to meet the van head-on. He landed on the roof and reached through the back window for the shooter.

It was a businesswoman with a pencil skirt and a tight bun. Strands of blonde hair escaped her bun and framed her face…her very purple face. The same red markings marred her cheeks, and her eyes glowed yellow. Her movements were smooth and automatic, as if she were asleep and someone was moving her limbs for her.

Keith webbed her gun to the roof of the van, but before he could grab her the van veered to the side. His feet remained planted in the metal, but his upper body lurched to the side with the movement.

The woman reared up and cracked her knuckles across his face. Normally, when someone tried to hit him they broke their hands; but her fist felt as solid as iron.

Keith ducked to avoid the next punch, and used his webs to fling the woman from the vehicle. She landed in a net of web, her arms bound and pressed tight against her body.

Keith dove through the back window to take care of the driver.

“He also has a firearm,” Coran warned.

Keith didn’t reply; he was too busy dodging bullets. He clambered over the seats, webbing up the steering wheel and pedals so the van would slow.

The man in the driver’s seat was in the same condition, purple skin and red marks stretching down his cheeks. He whirled in the seat, raising the gun right to Keith’s side.

For once, Keith wasn’t fast enough. The gun went off, and hot pain exploded in Keith’s side. Instinctively, he kneed the man’s gun hand; the handgun flew out the window, and Keith kicked the man again; he slumped forward over the van’s controls, dazed.

The van was slowing, the sounds of police sirens growing closer. Pressing a hand to his wound and praying he wasn’t leaving behind any DNA evidence, Keith clambered out the window and awkwardly swung up to a nearby roof, hissing in pain as his wound was stretched.

“Are you all right?” Pidge asked, worry evident in her tone. “That gunshot sounded really close.”

“It got me,” Keith grunted, landing on the roof and out of sight from the street below. He lifted his hand to see a deep puncture wound; his body had stopped the bullet from going all the way in, but it was bleeding quite a bit and hurt like a bitch.

“Can you make it back to Altea?” Coran asked.

Keith nodded, then remembered they couldn't see him. “Yeah. It…doesn’t look that bad, just hurts a lot.”

Altea wasn’t too far away from where he was now; mustering his strength, Keith swung from the building. The pain in his side flared, but he pushed it down. Had he been a normal kid, a gunshot wound would be much more serious; but of course Keith wasn’t normal. Even so, by the time he made it to Altea, black spots were dancing in his vision.

Coran was waiting on the balcony, and he gently took hold of Keith’s arms as he staggered.

“Come, let us get you to medical.”

“Medical” was a curtained off section in Allura’s private office, where Coran’s equipment and supplies were kept. They were originally all there in case of an accident at the lab, in which case Coran would put his extensive medical knowledge to use. Now, though, they also had a…different use for it.

Keith had only been in medical a few times before; when he was first learning to swing, and got a few scrapes from slamming into buildings at full speed, or that time a would-be burglar had cut his arm with a pocketknife. The cut hadn’t been deep at all, more a scratch than a cut, but Coran had insisted on patching Keith up anyway. He got the feeling that the flamboyant redhead  _ liked _ being Spider-Man’s personal nurse.

Now Coran waved for him to sit on the cot; Keith obeyed, wincing as more blood seeped from the wound. As Coran was gathering bandages and other supplies, Pidge crept forward with a glass vial.

She swiped away some of Keith’s blood from his wound, and he jerked away.

“Hey!”

She pulled back, holding the small vial of Keith’s blood up to the light. “It’s for research. Stop whining.”

If Keith hadn’t been in so much pain, he might have argued more. But Pidge insisted on studying his blood every time she got the chance; and because there was no way in hell Keith would let her draw some, her only chance was when he got injured like this.

Coran stepped forward, motioning for Keith to remove his suit. He obeyed, pressing the dark blue spider icon and pooling the suit around his waist. Coran lifted his undershirt and began to clean the wound.

Keith winced as he finished and wrapped it with bandages.

“With your body’s rapid regeneration,” Coran said, stepping away and twirling his mustache, “that should be healed up nicely by tomorrow morning. Noon at the latest.”

“Thanks, Coran,” Keith said, wincing as he pulled his suit back on.

Pidge was hunched over a table a few feet away, muttering to herself as she tapped away on a holoscreen.

“Find anything good in my blood today?” Keith asked, limping over; his side was still awfully tender.

Pidge shrugged and stepped back. “The usual. Lots of crazy radioactive stuff, the works. Honestly, it’s a miracle I can even find  _ any _ data in this sludge.”

Keith arched an eyebrow. “Thanks,” he deadpanned. “I love hearing my blood be described as sludge.”

Pidge shrugged, returning to her analysis.

Then a thought occurred to Keith. An awful, spine-tingling thought.

“What…what if I left blood behind at the scene? Wouldn’t they be able to find my DNA that way?”

Before Keith could start spiraling into a panic, Pidge shook her head, not taking her eyes off her experiment. “There’s so much radioactive particles in your blood, it’s next to impossible to pick out DNA. Even if you did bleed on the van a little bit, there’s no way the cops could possibly find any useful data.”

Keith exhaled, the rising tension leaving his body in a rush of air; he trusted Pidge’s judgment on this. If she said they couldn’t find his DNA, then they couldn’t find his DNA.

“That’s a relief.”

* * *

She stood in the dark room, yellow eyes fixed on the screens before her. Papers were spread all around the desk, blueprints and diagrams and notations.

The footage from tonight’s experiment ran again; her people driving the van, and Spider-Man landing on the roof. She liked this suit better, she decided. The red, black and blue complimented him quite nicely.

The tussle in the van, the woman being tossed from the vehicle and caught in a net of web. The gunshot, and the defeat of her second victim.

She was interrupted by a door opening. The man and woman from tonight’s experiment stood there, clothes rumpled and torn from tonight’s escapades.

“My Lady,” the man said, stepping forward. His voice was monotone, his glowing yellow gaze fixed straight ahead just like every other person under her control.

Her victim reached into his pocket and withdrew the plastic vial she had supplied him with before tonight’s experiment began. Several drops of blood sat in the bottom. Spider-Man’s blood.

She reached forward, taking hold of the vial and gingerly cradling it to her chest like it was precious. Because it was.

There was only one way to get rid of Spider-Man, and that was to fight fire with fire. Now that she had access to the radioactivity in his body, she would be able to continue her plans.

Her smile was sharp, her eyes glowing brighter as she turned to those she controlled.

“Begin phase two.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNNN!!!!!!!!
> 
> Domestic Adashi in this house because I Can. Also Pidge in her blanket nest is A MoodTM
> 
> Where's my Surviving Space Fam at??
> 
> Has anyone ever seen the [Eyebrows of Disappointment?](https://www.pinterest.dk/pin/430375308137044582/) Because that is 100% something Shiro does. No I do not take constructive criticism
> 
> I have created a new [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/firedragonworks) to answer questions any of you may have about my aus, post updates on fics old and new, and more!


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